Soldiers' Stories

The greatest military award a soldier can earn is the Medal of Honor. It's given for extreme courage and service to one's unit and nation in the face of great personal risk. And yet when the recipients discuss their actions, they often claim they were just doing their duty and that their fellow combatants would have done the same. To them, there is nothing extreme or extraordinary about themselves -- they were just in the right place to do the right thing. Larry Smith chronicled the actions and words of eight Medal of Honor recipients in his book Beyond Glory. Stephen Lang adapted the book into his one-man show, Beyond Glory, which takes the form of eight veterans delivering first-hand accounts of the incidents in which they risked all for their comrades. There is very little of Rambo-esque histrionics here; instead, men who feared for their safety less than they feared the death of a brother-in-arms explain how you will yourself to charge into heavy fire without regret. Beyond Glory is performed at 8 p.m. this evening at the Edison Theatre on the Washington University campus (6445 Forsyth Boulevard; 314-935-6543 or edisontheatre.wustl.edu). Tickets are $20 to $36.
Sat., Nov. 16, 2013