Great Men

There have been so many great men that have lived through the ages. What intrigues me more is how they got that way, what was their makeup? Great men (or women) are not created overnight they are usually born in adversity and had to really work (although they would call it living) through life.

I have been reading Sergeant York and the Great War and am almost half way through the book. It is really just a collection of Sergeant York's journals and reflections on his life through World War I. For those who don't know, Sergeant York was considered one of the greatest heroes of WWI. Here is an excerpt as to why:

Alvin Cullum York (December 13, 1887 – September 2, 1964) was one of the most decorated American soldiers in World War I.^[1] He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, taking 32 machine guns, killing 28 German soldiers and capturing 132 others. This action occurred during the U.S.-led portion of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France, which was part of a broader Allied offensive masterminded by Marshal Ferdinand Foch to breach the Hindenburg line and make the opposing German forces surrender.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_C._York)

York did not act in that moment because of who he was in that moment, rather he acted that way because of who he was. Here is an excerpt from the book that so far sums up what I have read and the sort of man that Alvin C. York was:

"So I was saved!
And that is the greatest victory I ever won. It's much harder to whip yourself than to whip the other fellow, I'm a-telling you, and I ought to know because I done, both. It was much harder for me to win the great victory over myself than to win it over those German machine guns in the Argonne Forest. And I was able to do it because my mother's love led me to God, and He showed me the light, and I done followed it." (Sergeant York and the Great War, pages 60-61)

After those amazing feats of bravery and leadership, Sergeant York was offered a life a fame and money, a movie was even made about him and to this day folks still talk about his bravery. Sergeant York wanted nothing more than to return to the mountains of northern Tennessee to live the life that he'd always known, he turned that life of fame and money down because he felt that he did what he must. It was all he knew and that made him a great man.