My idea of a hero

Warrigal

Warrigal

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Location
Sydney, Australia
A 75 year old man coaching children in a library defends them against a young assailant armed with knives.

What's the highest bravery award he could be awarded?

A 75-year-old man saved children from knife attack during chess club

By Colby Itkowitz
October 16 at 7:22 PM

He’d finished his tutorial and was walking around the room to survey the children’s chess moves when a man brandishing two knives burst into the room threatening to kill them.

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James Vernon, a 75-year-old Vietnam War-era veteran, who volunteers weekly teaching chess to about 16 home-schooled children at the public library in Morton, Illinois, had only one thought: “This is not going to happen.”

The children, aged 7 to 14, froze in their seats. Vernon approached the man, identified by local press as 19-year-old Dustin Brown, and calmly asked him questions in an attempt to diffuse the situation. Brown stood there making shallow cuts in his own left arm. He told Vernon his whole life sucked.

Vernon, who spoke to The Washington Post on Friday afternoon, said he was certainly scared throughout the incident Tuesday, but was solely focused on saving the kids.

He asked Brown to let the children leave and they could talk it out. A mother in the room took the cue and hurried the children out the room. It was then that Brown lunged. Vernon lifted his hand to block him and was stabbed deep into his palm and through two arteries. His blood splattered on the plastic chess pieces and on the library carpet.

Vernon fought back and overcame him, and somehow got him flipped on to of one of the conference tables – he said the minute or so of hand-to-hand combat is a blur. “I was operating at the animal level for a few seconds there,” he said. “I needed to stop him from assaulting these children or their mothers with those knives.”

He’s got weak knees, a bad shoulder and high blood pressure, but his body was “adequate for the job,” he said. He credited his basic Army training from over 50 years ago for knowing what to do in a knife-fight. With the spate of school violence across the country, Vernon refused to let his small town become another statistic.

“This can’t happen here and I’m not going to let it happen,” he said he thought in that moment. “These kids are my responsibility right now.”
Both Vernon and Brown were taken to the hospital after the incident, and Brown was later arrested and charged with attempted murder, armed violence, and aggravated battery, according to local reports.

A mother of one of the children called Vernon to thank him. Vernon, who underwent two hours of surgery on his hand, just wanted to make sure the chess club was still meeting again next week.
They are.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...children-from-knife-attack-during-chess-club/
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If the mothers had already evacuated the children then his statement of "I needed to stop him from assaulting these children or their mothers with those knives” doesn't fit into the timeline ...

... but gee - someone who "went animal" is a hero?!? :upset:
 
A mother in the room took the cue and hurried the children out the room. It was then that Brown lunged. Vernon lifted his hand to block him and was stabbed deep into his palm and through two arteries. His blood splattered on the plastic chess pieces and on the library carpet.

Vernon fought back and overcame him, and somehow got him flipped on to of one of the conference tables – he said the minute or so of hand-to-hand combat is a blur. “I was operating at the animal level for a few seconds there,” he said.
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It wasn't over when the children left the room. Up until then Vernon was just talking him down. The young man was armed with two knives and the old man was stepping forward to protect others. So yes, I say that makes him a hero. After he was attacked he was fighting for his own life. The reference to going animal I take to mean that in those short seconds of hand to hand, where one of his hands had two arteries cut, was more instinctual than reasoned.

Yep. I call him a hero. I'd like to see him awarded the US equivalent of the George Cross which is the highest gallantry award for civilians in the UK.
 
I concur Warri. Also, a deranged young man can move more quickly than either mothers or children. If that man had not stopped him, he would have gone after them, or anyone else in his way.
 
Warrigal said:
It wasn't over when the children left the room. Up until then Vernon was just talking him down. The young man was armed with two knives and the old man was stepping forward to protect others. So yes, I say that makes him a hero. After he was attacked he was fighting for his own life. The reference to going animal I take to mean that in those short seconds of hand to hand, where one of his hands had two arteries cut, was more instinctual than reasoned.
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That's not how I read it. The kids were gone - out of the room - when Brown attacked. Therefore, Vernon was NOT directly protecting the kids - he was protecting himself.

I just thought it funny that when the sheepdog went to work in this instance the sheep all hail him as a hero. Otherwise they'd spit on him and accuse him of having PTSD.
 
Everything including my next breath is conjecture. We all play the percentages. I stand by my statement. I deal with volatile individuals on a regular basis. Last time I ignored my instincts, my arm was broken.
 
But legally they'd throw that idea out of court. I've been there - instincts are not a legal defense.

In the real world? Yes, I wouldn't trust the perp as far as I could throw him. But the legal system often sees things backwards.
 
Given the current atmosphere, it will be interesting to see how the scenario plays out. Will it be enough for intent...I am unsure of the differences between our two justice systems re this situation. In Canada he would be a hero.
 
Understood, as he should be here. I just never trust the bleeding hearts ... they might say that the perp's rights were violated when Vernon threw his hand on his knife. :rolleyes:

Stranger things have happened.
 
I don't know what we are talking about here. The guy comes in with a knife and threatens everyone in the room. The old guy immediately interposes himself and attempts to diffuse the situation, giving the mother's a chance to get the kids to safety.
He is already a hero at this point in my view. He is then attacked and stabbed and finally subdues the attacker. I think the word "hero" is greatly over used, often applied to people who happen to become victims. If this guy doesn't qualify, we might as well get rid of the word altogether.
 
Hero.... I'd say this should be in the dictionary.

"You’re an 19 year old kid. You’re critically wounded, and dying in
the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam.
Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 to 1, and the enemy fire is so
intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander
has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.

You’re lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you
know you’re not getting out. Your family is halfway around the world,
12,000 miles away, and you’ll never see them again. As the world starts
to fade in and out, you know this is "the day".

Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear the sound of a helicopter,
and you look up to see an unarmed Huey, but it doesn’t seem real, because
no Medi-Vac markings are on it.


Ed Freeman is coming for you. He’s not Medi-Vac, so it’s not his job, but
he’s flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, even after the Medi-Vacs
were ordered not to come.

Ed’s coming anyway, and he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire,
as they load two or three of you on board. Then he flies you up and out through
the gunfire to the Doctors and Nurses.

And, he kept coming back. Thirteen more times he came back and took about thirty
of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out otherwise."

The story of U.S. Army Veteran Ed Freeman is true.

However, according to some survivors of the battle, the unarmed Huey actually
returned more than 21 times with supplies, evacuating the wounded each trip.
On that day, more than 70 soldiers were flown to safety by Captain Freeman.

Here is an actual photo of Capt. Freeman in action that day.
 

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SifuPhil said:
Understood, as he should be here. I just never trust the bleeding hearts ... they might say that the perp's rights were violated when Vernon threw his hand on his knife. :rolleyes:

Stranger things have happened.
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I think Phil is being facetious here. Exercising his wicked sense of humor. :devil:
 
I have read about Ed Freeman before. I think he was one of the few that may have received the CMH without dying. Going back to WWII, my dad always talked about Audie Murphy, who received the CMH at age 19. Me, I was awarded a Bronze Star Medal and a Purple Heart, but then so did many others.
 
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