Odyssey of a Hero

When, in 1919, Private John Benton returned from France, he was not a hero of the proportions of three or four who, alone and unaided, had slain six or a dozen of the enemy and captured a hundred; but he was a warrior not to be sneezed at. He had been decorated by three nations and kissed by half the women in Paris, and the welcome given him by natives of his home town was one that rocked Idaho from end to end. There were seven speeches and a dozen bands and two truckloads of flowers, and more flags and friends and goodwill than John had ever seen before. His mother sat between two mayors, and his gawky young sister was deferred to and flattered by all the politicians between Boise and the Wyoming line.

And it all went to John’s head a little; but he remembered, even so, that war had been a dark and sightless butchery, and that German soldiers, hungry for cigarettes and peace, were human beings much like himself. He was sick of war and he wanted quiet and forgetfulness. He was a little terrified by the sadistic ardor of these homeland patriots who had never seen horror in young faces or a bayonet in the belly of a man. “We licked them all right!” cried a neighbor. “Hey, John, didn’t we whack it to them?” And the man looked at John and burst with happy, victorious laughter. “The Huns learned something when the Yanks got over there,” said another. “By God, don’t tell me they didn’t!” “How was it over there?” asked a third. “A lot of fun, wasn’t it, now? Hey, John, you lucky devil!” And to all this, John’s answer was a pitying shrug and a wan smile.

His smile became almost ghastly as he listened to the principal speaker. The man shouted in furious rhetoric and aroused the great audience to wild and prolonged applause. “We have with us today one of the mightiest heroes in that great struggle to make all nations and all peoples the guardians of peace: a native son, one of our own boys. We have gathered here to honor his name and to write it high among the selfless knights who march under the flags of war to make the world safe for the mothers of men! In profound humility we are gathered to pay homage to this soldier and patriot, this son of the Idaho mountains and valleys, who captured, single-handed, the machine-gun nest of the enemy, and marched his foes, beaten and vanquished, down the soil of France where the name of the great Lafayette still rings like a bell in the hearts of civilized nations!”