Let's not shortchange the significance of heroism and chivalry.
Yes, wars are 99% marching, eating bad food, living in subhuman conditions and being just a very small cog in a very large machine.
But there are some of us who transcend the drudge and perform deeds that are, in effect, guideposts to human behavior. Few, if any, fantasize about being a garden variety soldier in some major encounter. Few, if any, fail to admire the courage and the nobility of Horatius on the Bridge. "Generals" sending soldiers to battle rarely enter the lore of heroism. It is the individual soldier who does. Heroism is a supremely individual achievement. A person who volunteers to risk life for his country and his comrades is a better man. A person who is magnanimous toward his vanquished enemies is a better man. A person who refuses to obey an inhuman order is a better man. And when we remember them, there is a small, still voice within our conscience: If they could do it, why can't I? This is the meaning of heroic inspiration: striving to be a better man.
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods
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