Who are the un-sung heros of America?

I found out about this BLOG from Ezra Klein’s twitter post. I like the idea of giving credit to unsung heroes on The 4th of July. My hero is George Marshal. George was the Secretary of War during the Truman administration. He is most known for the Marshal Plan which rebuilt Europe after the Second World War, and earned him the Nobel Peace prize. George is from Pennsylvania like me. He never sought to be in the lime light, but was thrust into it because of his expertise in administration. He was Truman’s adviser on the some of the most important decisions of the twentieth century. The short list is the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the rebuilding of Europe after WWII which probably prevented WWIII, the Korean Conflict.

What I would like to highlight today is his humility. Marshal was offered the opportuni...ty to command the American forces in Europe, but he deferred to Eisenhower. The question that has not been asked enough is why? Could it be that Marshal felt that his influence would serve the president better by not being promoted? This type of thinking is foreign to our mindset. It is not foreign to people who have embraced and studied Christian teaching. I think Marshal and many who have gone before him were great Christians before they were great Americans. This little noticed deferral of prominence to advance our country’s goals is the kind of self sacrifice that is essentially Christian.

George Marshal passes the reverse Facebook test. Sometimes it is good idea to judge a person by the people who dislike them. Joe McCarthy and Chiang Kai-shek both disliked George. I dislike them so this would make me want to be his friend on face book.

Here is a “Who Am I?” BLOG Post about my favorite military hero on this 4th of July in 2011.