Over Memorial Day weekend, television had a lot of military movies. We enjoy watching those, especially the ones that show the events during World War II.

One of my favorite World War II movies is "The Dirty Dozen." That film makes me laugh out loud. It is the story of a bunch of misfits who are challenged to complete a perilous activity. These men are all prisoners and charged with various crimes. If they complete their task, they will be pardoned.At the end of the movie, only a few of them are left alive. They have completed their task and those survivors will be able to start new lives.My husband and I had a discussion about whether or not the survivors could be called heroes. We both agreed that they could not. True heroes are not promised anything for their actions.How should we choose heroes? Do you remember Scott O'Grady, the American pilot whose plane was shot down over Bosnia? When he got home, people started calling him a hero. He disagreed with them. He said that he was like "a scared little bunny rabbit" who just happened to have his airplane shot down.He insisted that the real heroes were members of the helicopter crew who risked their lives to save him. Some people may think that the helicopter crew was just doing their job and should not be called heroes.Whenever people discuss naming heroes, disagreements occur. There can actually be fighting words spread around.The next time you want to be totally surprised, just ask a child to name a hero. The answers will vary from a Super Bowl quarterback to Superman, the man of steel. Younger children might name Barney the purple dinosaur or one of the Power Rangers.Older children might think more carefully and name someone like Miss America, Martin Luther King Jr., Mario Andretti or the neighborhood policeman.Children are just like the rest of us. We choose our heroes based on what we know. It would be nice if children knew some real-life heroes.When a passer-by runs into a burning building to save someone, he is a real hero. When a pedestrian sees a young child crossing the street in front of a fast-moving truck and runs in front of that truck to save the child, he is a real hero.Stories of everyday heroes don't usually make the newspaper. Those heroes don't fly through the air or change their clothes in telephone booths.There is a beautiful song titled "Wind Beneath My Wings" by Bette Midler. One line from the song says, "Did you ever know that you're my hero? You're everything I would like to be."We look up to our heroes. We should make sure that our children can look up to good examples.If you would like to contact Dr. Smith, she can be reached at her email address: jsmith1313@cfl.rr.com or in care of this newspaper.