August 17, 2006
Dave Karnes, the crazy kind of hero on 9/11
The movie "World Trade Center" had an interesting side story about Dave Karnes who discovered the two cops in the rubble. Slate has an excellent article on that story here.
Columnist Stewart Alsop once famously identified two rare types of soldiers, the "crazy brave" and the "phony tough." The professionals at Ground Zero—I interviewed dozens in my work as a producer for CBS—were in no way phony toughs. But Karnes does seem a bit "crazy brave." You'd have to be slightly abnormal—abnormally selfless, abnormally patriotic—to do what he did. And some of the same qualities that led Karnes to make himself a hero when it counted may make him less perfect as the image of a hero today.Karnes was a man on a mission from God to do good whatever it took. That is my kind of hero. Be sure to read the complete article.
Posted by Sid at August 17, 2006 06:18 AM | War on Terror
