True Heroes!

Kia Ora,

As a series of disasters sweep around the world, the word hero is getting heard a lot. But who is a hero?

Before I deal with that though one issue that has been on going raised its head in the Letters to the 'Editor' of the 'Press'. A resident in the Red Zone of the Christchurch CBD was complaining about the ever changing regulations & stopping of them doing 'normal things'.

It is an issue I encountered first as a young New Zealand soldier during the 1984 Invercargill floods. Again it is a Civil Defence issue where after putting a cordon in place they allow residents to re occupy within that cordon.

It should never happen! There should be the possibility of escort to retrieve property & animals, but no one should be allowed to live inside a cordon. End of Story.

The reason they can not do 'normal' things is it is too dangerous & changing by the minute. The issue of different instructions is also due to that I menitioned in a previous post due to the poor communication coming from Civil Defence & each grouping getting a different brief.

But on to the Heroes.

When I first talked about how an Israeli woman & I went into the Christchurch Cathedral & got people out, some said we were heroes. Think not. We just did what many did in the situation that had to be done & much less than many. Yes there was some danger, but there was in Iraq too & is every day in security, policing or any of the services.

Like soldiers braving bullets I am sure the USAR(Urban Search & Rescue) don't regard themselves as heroes. Just doing what they train to do & happy just for some thanks. You know the risks, mitigate them & carry on.

Then I saw some true heroes in Japan. Facing something they can not see.

First there are the workers at the Japanese reactor who have continued to battle to get the reactors under control. They are aware of the dangers as they work with it but go back in to try to save their wider community.

But the real heroes to me were the Japanese military helicopter pilots flying in to drop water in an attempt to cool the reactors with what would be virtually little protection. Knowing that though they can not see it they are almost certainly getting more radiation exposure than any person should by their proximity to the reactor in carrying out their task.

Yet knowing military, police, fire & the likes of USAR there would of been more volunteers than positions to fill those pilots seats.

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