A about World War II relates a tale of heroism I was unfamiliar with.

(Timely in that it is 70 years to the day since the event. Since CNN fired all its investigative reporters, this is as close to timely as they get.)

A troop ship was torpedoed in the North Atlantic. Not enough life vests; many soldiers died. Among them, four chaplains of different denominations who gave others their vests, brought calm to the evacuation, and prayed together as they went down with the ship.

Organized religion gets a bad rap these days, and rightly so, for the most part. But this was an era when faith could grant extraordinary courage. That's a story that Heinlein would have been very familiar with (it was well known at the time) and would have formed part of the fabric of heroism that he wove so deftly.

i read of this piece of history long ago- the word which comes to my mind is "noble"- the nature of war is it brings out both the basest and the most noble instincts of mankind- RAH portrayed both in his novels.