Courage.

The word is defined as a quality of being ready and willing to face negative situations involving the risk of danger and pain. People who exhibit courage during the stress of military conflict are normally afraid. The fear of being hurt or dying is real, but they still take action to try to protect their fellow soldiers and secure the interests of the orders they had received.

Ron Rabenold of Lehighton, whose father served in the Korean War as a United States Marine, has put together a visual program of 85 slides that pay tribute to the courage of several local military veterans.

“We are not born with courage,” he said. “Courage comes from within a personal sense of duty.”

The slide program will be shown to Rabenold’s fifth-grade social studies students at Lehighton Elementary Center and will be shared by other teachers upon request.

“I became fascinated with military and national duty when my brother was in the Secret Service during the Reagan years,” Rabenold said. “I like to interview veterans to get their human side of combat rather than focus on the tactical strategies of military maneuvers.”

Rabenold’s program begins with a slide showing WWI doughboy Joseph Ambrose from Illinois, dressed in full military uniform at the Vietnam War Memorial dedication in 1982. He’s holding an American flag that draped the casket that held his son after he was killed in the Korean War.

“He saw it as his duty to be there,” said Rabenold, “for his country, for his family, and for all of us.”

The program features WWII “Hero of Cologne,” Clarence Smoyer from Lehighton.

Last year, Smoyer received the Bronze Star for disabling several German tanks while protecting his own tank crew. A man of great humility who witnessed the deaths of many American and German soldiers, he can only say, “I did my best,” when asked about his extraordinary courage in the line of duty.

Smoyer’s heroism was first made public by Lehighton’s Pete Semanoff, who himself was awarded a Bronze Star for his bravery as a Major of the Army artillery in the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. Semanoff’s family is rich in service to their country. His grandfather was a member of the 101st Airborne Battered Bastards of Bastogne, a unit of men who despite freezing weather and being greatly outnumbered by the Germans, held their ground during a significant enemy advancement in 1944. Semanoff’s sister, brother and father all served their country as well.

“Pete’s the glue that gets these stories together, and he had the honor to pin the Bronze medal on Clarence Smoyer,” Rabenold said.

For Semanoff, duty is not something required just for the battlefield. He often speaks before youth groups to encourage them to be good citizens.

Semanoff tells the kids that it’s their duty to do the right thing. Not everything is about them. Hold the door open for someone. Be a good person. Being a citizen comes with a certain level of responsibility to others.

Palmerton native retired Sgt. Maj. of the Army Dan Dailey attained the highest rank for a noncommissioned Army officer. Dailey worked in the Pentagon and helped secure the Bronze Medal for Smoyer, awarded 75 years after the tank gunner had helped liberate Cologne.

Another Lehighton resident in Rabenold’s slideshow is Lt. Larry Ahner.

When Ahner arrived in Iraq, he was assigned as the commanding officer of high-valued prisoners, including Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq.

Kenneth Wong, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army and with several local ties to veterans, worked behind the scenes to procure the Bronze Star for its presentation to Clarence Smoyer.

Wong has been serving his country for many years and in many different capacities.

“I tell young people to find a passion, something that’s bigger than you are,” he said. “I also tell them that I do what I do for selfish reasons. When you do something good, you feel good, too.”

Ron Rabenold’s labor of love will continue to chronicle the lives of local American servicemen who have benefited the welfare of the country. These veterans have worn their badges of courage that have exemplified the highest levels of human character earned from nothing more and nothing less than “a personal sense of duty.”