Summer 1998 Essay Contest Winner

This page is from The Website for Young Marines

Editor's note: In the Summer 1998 of Young Marine Esprit, we offered a challenge to our readers: Write an essay describing a person you believe displayed great courage. We promised to print the best one.

My definition of courage comes from a great person, my morn. She said, "Courage is an act that may risk and take a life." She based her definition on her brother. Sunny.

His life was taken by a raging river. My uncle wasn't a big man, but he had a lot of heart. He was driving his truck down Ridge Pike during a heavy storm. It had been raining for three or four days. When he stopped at a stop sign, he saw a man struggling in the river. He stopped his truck on a bridge slightly over the water. He got out and jumped in the river. It pulled him under a couple of times, but he kept on going.

When he reached him, the man was nearly dead, but my uncle carried him to shore. When they got there, he performed CPR on the man and he recovered. As my uncle went to get in his truck, the bridge gave way and the river swept him away. An hour later my mother found his lifeless body in the river.

In my eyes, I think this is the true definition of phys- ical courage - "to give a life in order to save another."

By Sgt Justin D. Cox, Delaware County Young Marines
(Pennsylvania)
Taken from "Young Marine Espirit" magazine - Fall 1998 issue

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