No greater love - Washington Examiner

Courage is the virtue Americans most associate with our military. And in our nation's nearly 250-year history, we've accrued hundreds of tales of extraordinary bravery in battle.

Sometimes those heroes come home to parades and Medals of Honor. Often, though, the bravest come home in a flag-draped casket. These are the heroes we honor on Memorial Day, and whose memories we ought to keep alive.

Jesse Brown and Thomas Hudner are two such heroes.

Their story begins in November 1950. The massive Chinese army, just one month after marching across the border into North Korea, struck hard against U.S. forces near the Chosin Reservoir. In that brutal Korean winter, American soldiers and Marines at Chosin were outnumbered and encircled.

It was up to men like Brown and Hudner, naval aviators deployed on the USS Leyte aircraft carrier, to give their countrymen on the ground a fighting chance.

Brown was also a historic figure: the first African American naval aviator in U.S. history. Brown, Hudner, and their squadron were called upon to identify and attack enemy forces to relieve pressure on the outgunned Americans on the ground.

But on Dec. 4, 1950, after navigating a treacherous path to the Chosin Reservoir, the enemy hit Brown's Corsair jet. Unable to maintain flight, the ensign crashed into a frozen valley. He was deep behind enemy lines and hours from any possible rescue.

Making matters worse, Brown was trapped in his airframe's wreckage. A fire started. All seemed lost.

Then Thomas Hudner responded. With an act of almost insane courage, Hudner deliberately crashed his own aircraft. Although himself now injured, Hudner managed to reach Brown and control the fire that was enveloping him. But Hudner could not free his friend. Risking detection by enemy forces who might have seen either aircraft go down, Hudner sat by his wounded friend.

When a rescue helicopter finally arrived, Hudner and the rescue pilot worked relentlessly to try to free Brown. Still, the wreckage didn't budge. With light fading, the two rescuers were forced to abandon Brown.

The young American's parting words were a message of love to his wife. Brown had been killed in action.

In his Medal of Honor citation, history records that Hudner had fought a "desperate but unavailing battle against time, cold, and flames. Hudner’s exceptionally valiant action and selfless devotion to a shipmate sustain and enhance the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service."

The citation is apt. While Hudner, who passed away in 2017, may have lost the impossible battle that day against time, cold, and flames, he won the battle for honor and courage. Standing by his brother until the very end, Hudner reminded a nation still immersed in racial tension that color means nothing on the battlefield and that patriotism and brothers are worth fighting and dying for.

There seems to be much more these days that divides our nation than brings us together. The shared institutions of American society are generally held in low regard. Church is increasingly ignored or disdained. Congress is loathed. The presidency is held in contempt by about half the country at any given time. Americans believe they have been betrayed by academia and by industry. They don't trust the media.

The military is the last national institution trusted and admired by most of the country. As we editorialized at the beginning of this month in which we have honored the military, such trust and admiration is due to the virtue and character of the men and women in uniform.

At the root of our love for these men and women is their love for their countrymen. And the Christian Gospel teaches a truth about love that is embraced as well by the other faiths in this country. "There is no greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends."

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