Following on from the Neil Armstrong thread, who would you class as your heroes ?

Just using the example of Neil Armstrong, most people would not hesitate to put him on a heroes list, a US Navy test pilot, a Korean War veteran, a Gemini 8 rocket pilot, and the man chosen as mission commander on the Apollo 11 moon landing - not forgetting the small matter of being the first to walk on the moons surface.

But had it not been for the moon landing, if they had just orbited the moon like Apollo 10 did, would any of us have heard of him or held him in such respect - and how many of us can name, without doing a internet search, the name of the Command Module pilot on the Apollo 11 mission, the one who didn't descend to the moons surface but who, if he didn't do his job properly would have lost the two who's names are household terms, and heroes.

More importantly who remembers Gus Grissom, Ed White, or Roger Chaffee ?

Would they be on your heroes list, they'd probably be on Neil Armstrongs list.

So who is on your heroes list and how do you pick them ?

Top of my list would be Dennis Skinner.

A miner's son who passed his scholarship to the grammar school and still went down the pit because that's where all his mates were. Anything else you need to know is rlHERErl

If only we had more like him

Ernest Shackleton is one for my list

Berry Gordy - Founder of the greatest record label ever
Bernard Manning - The King of comedy
Clint Eastwood - Better actor using only his eyes than most modern Hollywood stars using their voices
Levi Stubbs - The best voice ever discovered by the music industry

Michael Collins Was in the command module I think. I am a complete space nerd though.

As for my heroes: I'd have Gagarin and Armstrong on the list. Gagarin must have had balls of steel to go into the unknown like that. I'd also have George Mallory in my list. Possibly the first man to summit Everest, but never returned to tell the tale. I remember when they found his body, quite well preserved on the mountain. The clothing and boots he had on for an undertaking as massive as that climb was quite shocking, just a few layers of wool and boots that people wouldn't put on for a hike in the Yorkshire Dales these days. It was an incredible feat to get as close as he did to the top (he was spotted near the summet from a lower camp). The romantic side of me thinks he made it all the way. I have done some Himalayan climbing and have nothing but respect and admiration for pioneers like Mallory, who did it all with poor gear and little knowledge of what they were heading into.

There are also a few personal ones that are not famous but have had a big effect on my life and I'm sure if I thought for longer I would think of a lot more famous heroes too.

chief sitting bull
crazy horse
red cloud
cochise
geronimo

David Jones and Joe Green - 'lest we forget'.......Dee Brown - for that book.......John Maclean.

Slightly OT
I have just finished reading "Bury my heart at Wounded Knee" and followed lt with "A terrible glory".

Those boys you have listed are all deserving of the Hero mantle.

If you're going to read a book you might as well make it that one.

Not sure about hero, but an inspiration was Terry Fox.

Armstrong and Aldrin will always be remembered - many have already forgotten Collins if they ever even heard of him. As it is, they were the chosen ones due to a rather opaque selection process - they weren't the crew most of the astronauts themselves would have bet on getting the first landing gig.

Gagarin is also a good call from the space race era.

Off the top of my head I can't actually think of anyone else I would count as a 'hero' - but TBH I probably wouldn't have thought of an astronaut had Armstrong not been in the news. In fact I suspect that if somebody had asked me who my heroes were two weeks ago I would have said nobody.

I also don't like the word 'hero', but here's some more definite inspirations:- Orwell, Steinbeck, Hemingway, important reading to me as I grew...Weller, from, This Is The Modern World to Cafe Bleu to Wildwood...Sassoon and Owen, for their descriptive reality of 'horror'...Brando, for Don Corleone, Fletcher Christian and Colonel Kurtz... Souness and Keane, leaders with 'don'tfookwithmeability'. Ali, for being 'the greatest'. Marvellous Marvin Hagler, for being an awesome pugilist. Women Against Pit Closures, for their strength and loyalty... (is that enough? There'll be more. ) Oh shoite, I nearly forgot, Mr Steve 'Knocker' Norton.

Seeing as I double posted, I might as well use the space. Lennon, for realising, 'that phoney Beatlemania, had bitten the dust'...The Clash, and Strummer, for singing it.

Quote: WIZEB "Seeing as I double posted, I might as well use the space. Neil Armstrong isn't a 'hero' of mine, just a guy that walked on the moon ! Gagarin was more of a pioneer but still not worthy of hero status IMO WZ mentioned Wilfred Owen - now there is a real hero - even his life up to the 4th november 1918 is exeptional by anyones standards, but to carry out such a mission which earned him the Military Cross in the last wek of the Great War is awesome - his grave is in the public cemetary in the village of Ors in northern France and is something to see and pay your respects to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grave ... d_owen.jpg

Quote: WIZEB "Seeing as I double posted, I might as well use the space. Neil Armstrong isn't a 'hero' of mine, just a guy that walked on the moon ! Gagarin was more of a pioneer but still not worthy of hero status IMO WZ mentioned Wilfred Owen - now there is a real hero - even his life up to the 4th november 1918 is exeptional by anyones standards, but to carry out such a mission which earned him the Military Cross in the last wek of the Great War is awesome - his grave is in the public cemetary in the village of Ors in northern France and is something to see and pay your respects to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grave ... d_owen.jpg

The problem with choosing 'hero's" in your youth is that the always let you down.

Ali, Elvis, Lennon, Rose/Slash, Eubank, Gascoigne, Blair all reached hero status in my eyes at one time or an other, turns out they were all tits.

Right now i'd say I have admiration for Mercury, Obama, Gallagher, Gervais, Dr Chris O'Brien, Dawkins, Fry.

Just off the top of my head.

I've just realised there's no women on my list, I don't know what that says about me.