Received Valor
One of my chief concerns in depicting St. John Kraft’s military past and skills is the potential for stolen valor.
As you may know, “stolen valor” is claiming military experience which the claimant does not possess. The lie is a rank they never achieved, an award they never earned, or engagements in which they never participated. By portraying St. John’s military experience in a first-person account, am I suggesting that I have such experience? That is certainly not my intent.
Many other authors of adjacent material who have influenced my work did have such experience. John D. McDonald, Ian Fleming, and John le Carré (David Cornwell) all served in their respective nations’ intelligence services. But others like Lee Child (James Grant) and Tom Clancy had no military service. So I can fairly invoke artistic license as permission to write of such experiences.
But the more significant ethical question is: By portraying St. John’s moral outlook shaped by his military experience, am I suggesting I am qualified to convey such an outlook? The same artistic license certainly extends me permission to write about those things. But, what does it offer the reader as assurance of the truth and virtue of that perspective?
For that, I invoke the experience of my father, Edward Young (Ehrlich). He fought in two wars as a volunteer to promote democracy and to preserve the values that underpin that system: empathy and decency. You can read a snapshot of some of his exploits here.
He shared some details of his combat experience with me throughout our life together. But he always did so in the spirit of educating me on the importance of the underlying principles for right behavior which could be summarized as honesty with one’s self and service to others, including to generations yet to be born.
When I hear veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq discuss their military experience, I am constantly moved by those warriors’ guiding values of the rights of woman, the educational freedom of children, or the desire of decent civilians in those lands for peaceful and meaningful lives. Their contempt for the enemy is more often a contempt for the enemy’s lack of empathy and decency.
These are values I whole-heartedly endorse, as does St. John Kraft. But I must admit St. John Kraft’s worldview reflects my father’s as much as — or more than — my own. All I know of warfare is secondhand. Luckily for most people in this time, there is increasingly less combat experience to draw on. Hasten the day when there is none.
Until that time, I give thanks and respect to all who have put their lives on the line for the sake of others they’ll never know. When we adopt and reflect their values of service and sacrifice in our own lives, we pay homage to the valor that is so rightly theirs.