Captain Chelsey (Sully) Sullenberger

Captain Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger is the person I would choose to be my Lincoln hero today. He was the pilot of US Airways Flight 1549. He is my hero because he risked his life to save the passengers and crew on board the flight. The story about him is not unusual because there are many hardworking pilots who fly planes. But his actions, after his plane ran into a flock of birds and lost power, were unique. He stayed very calm and called in his emergency. Sully had the courage to make his own decisions. The Federal Aeronautical Administration (F.A.A.) and the air traffic control operator, talking with Sully in the emergency, assisted him by offering several landing sites. Sully decided that bringing the plane down in the Hudson River was the only choice open to him. It turns out that Sully was right and the decision he made was the best thing to do. His long experience and training enabled him to land the plane successfully.

After the plane came to a stop on the river, everyone on board was able to get out and climb on the wings. The plane started to fill up with water and sink. But Captain Sully swam through the icy waters inside the plane to make sure everyone was out and safe. Every person on U.S. Airways Flight 1549 was alive with just a few minor injuries. America got a wakeup call that day about courage and leadership. This is an example of a person who put others needs before himself.

Captain Sully is like Lincoln in several ways. President Lincoln always put the nation, and the needs of others, before himself. He spent long nights and hard days trying to end the Civil War. Some people didn't like the decisions he made. The people in the United States were divided over slavery and divided over keeping the states united and separate. Lincoln knew he had to make decisions based on the moral right and needs of all people in the United States. He had the courage to bring the divided country together. This made President Lincoln unpopular with many people. He disagreed often with the elected senators and did not always follow what they wanted. President Lincoln was another example of a person with courage and leadership. However, President Lincoln's decisions caused him to be assassinated on April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth, a Southern Loyalist.

I believe these two men are similar in many ways. First, they demonstrated leadership and risked their own lives to help others. Second, they had courage to do what was right for everyone. Also, they were humble people and they didn't even want credit for what they did! The character traits I see in Lincoln and Sully are what most men and women should have in America. We sometimes find these traits in our fire fighters, police, pilots, and presidents. We look up to them and say "Wow, I want to be just like you when I grow up." I look up to these types of people too. I want to be a pilot just like Captain Sullenberger someday. And I hope, too, can be courageous and have leadership that puts the needs of others before my own because it is the right thing to do.