I couldn’t find his name in any of the reports.  He was lifting Yazidis survivors off the mountain where so many were stranded.  He had made at least one trip already that day and had come back for more people.  Those he left behind he had promised he would return.  He kept his promise. All the trips were at great personal risk to him.

Upon his return too many clung to the helicopter.  He could not leave the controls to reduce the throngs who grabbed onto his craft.  His attempt to lift off failed.  The helicopter crashed, he perished.

In true journalistic fashion, he becomes a side note.  “Pilot dies, reporters injured.”

Now here is a hero. Here is the real candidate for some Nobel Prize.

The definition of “hero” usually requires that a person risk his life to benefit others.  Not hit home runs or score touchdowns.  Not report the news. This man was a compassionate hero in full. 

Perhaps the journalists, after they are through reporting on their colleagues’ survivable injuries, will provide us with the name of this helicopter pilot who risked his life to save others.  He defines heroism.

James Longstreet