Chris Kyle

The Title of Hero

“...[A] hero is someone who rises above his or her fears and limitations to achieve something extraordinary…” (Fleming 14). Heroes are not always the famous, perfect, overachieving do-gooders that society expects them to be. In fact, heroes are everyday people, flawed and all. Women who fight for equality, doctors who care for their patients, soldiers who fight for our country. People who fight for what they believe in or try to help others however they can are heroes. They are imperfect, but that’s what makes them human, and humans are the only ones we have to admire. As Oliver Stone says in his article “Where I Find My Heroes,” he states, “[Heroes are] People who take risks despite fears” (Stone). In this he implies that a hero is someone who knows the possible negative outcomes of a situation but takes the risk anyway. They are somebody who jumps into danger for the sake of others, no matter how perilous it might be. A hero is not always a person who has achieved a great many things, but someone who does what they can for the greater good. There are many definitions of heroic, but as often seen in the media, two traits that society deems important for a hero to possess are courage and loyalty. Those who showcase these characteristics are the ones willingly facing calamity every day in order to achieve a better, safer world, earning their title of ‘hero.’

Chris Kyle's wife, Taya Kylehttps://www.hqmc.marines.mil/smmc/Photos/igphoto/2001046769/An individual who expresses both courage and loyalty is one Chris Kyle. Born April 8, 1974, Chris Kyle grew up in Texas with his mother, brother, and father. He was a famed, local bull-rider until an arm injury ended his career, so he decided to take up a job at a ranch where he worked for a few years in his early twenties. In 1999, Kyle enlisted in the military where he became a SEAL, but not after months of grueling training that only  “...less than ten percent of the number that started” (Kyle 37) passed. He soon after met his future wife, Taya, at a bar and they later got married in 2002. He quickly got into the heat of battle in Iraq after the wedding and was deployed for a couple of months before he returned home, where he decided to attend sniper school in order to fulfill his dreams of becoming a military sniper. Before he retired, he served as one of the most successful military snipers in history. He worked on his book and a small business for the next few years until his untimely death in 2013. Throughout his career as a soldier, Kyle never lacked courage in the field or loyalty in the heart. He constantly sacrificed himself for others and his country and exemplified bravery in all its forms. Chris Kyle is a true American hero, as his unwavering loyalty and unrivaled courage makes him an outstanding military figure and someone who deserves to be admired by others.

Kyle displayed a tremendous amount of courage that aided him in taking charge in dangerous situations and saving many lives. During the heat of battle in Fallujah, Kyle discovered from some companions that there was a group of Marines that had been “pinned down” by some rebels. Along with a crew of Marines, he charged in to save them: “I’d taken only a few steps when I realized that none of the Marines had followed me ... I kept running. The insurgents began focusing their fire on me” (Kyle 153). Kyle was already entering a dangerous situation and though he had the option to retreat back when none of the other Marines had followed him, he pushed forward, dead set on getting the trapped Marines to safety. Kyle disregarded his own life in this situation for the lives of others, illustrating his outstanding courage in the battlefield, a characteristic widely sought after in heroes. He saved those soldiers by risking his life for them, something his “back-up” was not willing to do. Another example was during an overwatch mission when a group of insurgents ambushed the team of Marines clearing buildings. Two Marines had been shot and left on the road as the two sides barricaded themselves in opposite buildings. Kyle and his partner saw this and hurried to save them: “Chris and the other SEAL darted out into the street to the injured men, sprinting twenty yards into a torrent of gunfire. [...] Chris scurried in front of the enemy's hideout and grabbed one of the injured Marines. [...] With bullets filling the air, Chris began to drag him toward safety” (Greenblatt).  Kyle felt his safety was worth the peril if it meant he could save the young, abandoned Marine. No other man went to rescue the two wounded men, but he and his friend did, despite the bullets being exchanged over their heads and the targets they became for the terrorists. Kyle did not know if the two men would survive their injuries, but he was still prepared to put his life on the line for them. This act of valiance shows Kyle’s instinctive heroic nature and desire to save others. As he said in the interview with Mark Greenblatt, “When you see an injured man, you do whatever you can to save him…” Kyle would do almost anything to save someone, even in the most hazardous situations. He never felt any life was not worth his own. Kyle qualifies as a hero because of the imperil he willingly faced in order to protect others and his courageous spirit, which he never allowed to be broken.

Chris Kyle at a book signinghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chris_Kyle_January_2012.jpgKyle’s abiding loyalty to his country and job drove him to assist the war however he could, not for glory, but to protect his country, even if it involved leaving the people he cherished behind. Soon after the birth of his son, Kyle learned that a unit was being created in Baghdad and was in need of his sniping and navigation skills, so he decided to go: “I felt bad about leaving Taya. [...] But at the same time, I felt my duty as a SEAL was more important” (Kyle 117). Kyle didn’t want to go back to war so soon after Taya gave birth. He loved his wife and their child and he wanted to stay and help her raise him, but he felt that his loyalty to America came first. Kyle put his country above his family and went out to continue fighting for the greater good. Even though he wouldn’t originally have had to leave for another month, he knew his skills would be useful to the unit, so he chose to apply himself back to the war. This heroic dedication led him to save many more people, as he was able to help shut down terrorist groups, such as, “mujahedeen,” meaning “murderers in the name of God” (Kyle 119) and al-Qaeda, a group that used the war as an excuse to slay Americans. His devotion is further proven after he was awarded the bronze star for valor for saving the previously mentioned group of marines, about which he writes, “I’m proud of my service, but I sure as hell didn’t do it for any medal. They don’t make me any better or less than any other guy who served” (Kyle 155). Kyle fought for his country, not recognition. Medals were insignificant to Kyle and even when his wife insisted he display his medals, he turned the idea down. He knew what he had done for the war and so did his family and close friends, and that was enough for him. His allegiance did not stem from a need to be acknowledged. Kyle went to war because he wanted to keep America safe. He was loyal because he believed in his country and the cause he fought for, something that is adored in a hero. Kyle’s loyalty to his duty and to America encouraged him to constantly fight for others and for the greater good, making him a true American hero.

Kyle’s immense courage and loyalty that he applied to many years of war has earned him the title of hero because even in the most terrifying times, he stood strong against the enemy and offered support in any way he could. Kyle wanted to stand for what was right. He never backed down from danger and always made his country and his duty top priority. Because he sacrificed the comfort of life at home to fight in the Iraq war, he was able to protect people who could’ve died otherwise. If it came to death, he was always willing to accept it, because, in his mind, dying for his country was the most honorable way to go, as explained by Taya, “It was on deployment that the medical doctors did a test and, for some reason, thought Chris had TB. The doctors told him he would eventually die of the disease. [...] He’d already accepted that he was going to die, and he wanted to do it there, not at home… [...] He thought dying on the battlefield was the greatest” (Kyle 196). Kyle thought he was going to die and instead of dying surrounded by his family and friends, he wanted to die on the battlefield, where he knew he was making a difference. He wanted to go out with a bang. Chris Kyle was by no means perfect. He cussed and made mistakes and didn’t always have a perfect relationship with his family, but that’s what made him human. In his book, Kyle wasn’t afraid to show himself in all his glory, both good and bad. He proved that you don’t have to be some sort of godly being to be a hero. In this way, he is an inspiration. He inspires others to be like him. To be brave in the face of danger and to stay loyal at even the lowest points of the person or thing you are devoted to. Kyle’s story has inspired me to take part in activities that I was previously petrified to do. My social anxiety has always had a grasp on the things I let myself do outside of school in fear of not being talented enough or able to fit in, but I chose to push those thoughts down and step out of the comfort of my home by auditioning for a musical and signing up for volleyball. Though these things aren’t nearly are as courageous as what Kyle did, it feels like a step in the right direction for me. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes and the definition of a hero is not a set thing. Despite his flaws though, Kyle wasn’t anything less than heroic. Courage does not come easy, but he possessed ludicrous amounts of it, sacrificing so much for strangers and peoples he knew so little about. He stayed true to his home country and believed in its cause so viciously that he took every chance he got to serve. Chris Kyle is proof that you don’t need to be perfect to be seen as a hero. One should just stand for what they believe is right and change the world in any way they can.

Work Cited

Greenblatt, Mark. “Two Chris Kyle Stories You Won’t See in ‘American Sniper.”    

https://www.military.com/special-operations/two-chris-kyle-stories-you-wont-see-in-ame   rican-sniper.html. Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.

Fingeroth, Danny. Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves      and Our Society. New York and London: Continuum, 2005. ISBN: 0-8264-1540-7

Kyle, Chris. American Sniper. HarperCollins, 2012.

Stone, Oliver. “Where I Find My Heroes.” McCall's Magazine, Nov. 1992.