You could hear that officer's breathing immediately become more rapid even before he started running. Clearly scared and nervous, but went straight in anyway. That's true courage.
@Maj. Bill Martin Charging into gun fire is CLEARLY a mark of courage,but the breathing has nothing to do with it. Depending on the individual,it might be a sign on excitement,not fear.
I have seen people laughing and telling jokes while some of them were wounded and all of them were surrounded and in serious danger of being overran by a VERY superior number of enemy troops. It it hadn't been for the old prop fighter-bombers (mostly,although some jets did show up. The problem with jets is they fly so fast at their slowest speed that it is VERY hard for them to drop napalm,cluster bombs,and similar ordinance right on top of charging NVA troops that might only be 10 feet from the recon team the airplanes are trying to save."
Ask ANY recon man from ANY branch of the service which airplanes they love the most for close air support,the old and "obsolete" prop fighter-bombers,or the zoomies,and the zoomies will ALWAYS come in second.
I MUST give "Spooky Gun Ships" honorable mention,though. They deliver so much "damn-damn" in one pass that you can literally feel the ground shake from the bullet impacts. There may be an enemy somewhere at some time that is willing to charge up a hill while "Spooky" is "working",but I have never seen or heard of them.
Awesome isn't a strong enough word.
AND,it has GOT to be said that you CAN'T laugh and joke while being surrounded by a much larger enemy force,you need to get out of recon and go be a support troop. NOTHING wrong with being a support troop. The combat troops can't survive or function without you,and some people are just born to handle inventory,shipping,issue,payrolls,etc,etc,etc.
IMHO,this is something you are not even responsible for or even know that you have until you are in the wrong place at the wrong time,and in danger of being overran and captured or killed. You can't learn it or even take credit for it. It is an "accident of birth".
And I don't think you will ever hear anybody anywhere badmouthing medics or nurses.
Modern military units are VERY complex operations,and everybody is there because they have a vital job to do,and if they don't do that job,somebody will probably die because of it. That "somebody" might even be them.
