Of course you are forgetting that making the life/career CHOICE to pursue flight in a highly fragile and inescapable airframe to begin with meets all 5 of those criteria.
Also, by your definition, a soldier or Marine who charges an enemy fighting position is not courageous, as it is the mission of the infantry to close with and destory the enemy, and he is therefore merely doing his duty.
That would be a courageous act if, by
not charging the enemy, the soldier would
not be open to criticism for
not performing his "duty." What if there were a less expedient, more surgical way to dispense with the enemy? If the soldier had no choice but to "charge" - then I don't see how it is courageous. Even a trapped animal will lash out in its own self-defense when flight is not an option.
It has to be above and beyond the call of duty. The "Medal of Valor" is not typically given to those who do their job - even if they do it very well. At some point in the execution of their "duty", they must have been presented an option that, had they
not taken it, they would have
not been open to criticism for failure to perform their "duty."
For instance, nobody expects somebody to jump on a hand grenade. It's not really considered your "duty."
If a wounded comrade is lying in the middle of an open field during an intense fire fight - nobody would be critical if you failed to run out into that open field and drag him back to safety. It really wouldn't be your duty to perform such an act since the likely outcome would be your own death with little likelihood of success of saving the wounded soldier. In fact, it could easily result in
two wounded soldiers in an open field thus, in effect,
depleting the effective force of the overall group. Yet, running out into that open field would be courageous because it is unreasonable to expect that to be somebody's
duty.
If a Private were
ordered to run out into the field and attempt to save the wounded soldier, it then becomes his
duty to do so and, therefore, by (my) definition, can no longer be "courageous." The choice was removed when the order was given. Would he have done it on his own volition?
Gosh - this is fun!
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