--- title: "We salute these unsung heroes of 2020" description: "We here at Task & Purpose wanted to take a moment to acknowledge some of the unsung heroes out there in the military and veterans community." date: "2020-12-30" modified: "2020-12-30" authors: - name: "James Clark" job_title: "Editor-in-Chief" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/james-clark/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/unsung-heroes-of-2020/" categories: - "Culture" - "Mandatory Fun" --- # We salute these unsung heroes of 2020 ![]() As this roller coaster of a year comes to an end, we here at Task & Purpose wanted to take a moment to acknowledge some — there's not enough time or space on the page for all — of the unsung heroes out there in the military and veterans community. Some of their actions can only be described as breathtakingly heroic, [like the Marine who raced to pull an infant from a burning car]() or the [injured Special Forces surgeon who patched up his friend]() as well as the motorcyclists that collided with him on the road. Others are unquestionably badass, like the [Coast Guardsman who warded off an 8-foot shark]() with a few short bursts of his M4 as it crashed a swim call out at sea. Others are less unsung but deserve a final shout-out just the same, like [Capt. Brett Crozier](), who garnered national media attention and (most importantly) earned the [respect of his crew]() for pushing back on the Navy’s handling of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt — even though it cost him his command. That whole debacle also led to a shitstorm of other headlines, and the ouster of [then-acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly](). And then, of course, there are my personal favorites: The belligerent heroes. Not the heroes your CO and Sergeant Major want, but the ones they deserve. Oh, those brave salty few giving their command ‘what for’ [through brutal meme warfare](). Those quiet working-class heroes [with the dopest (and least safe for work) tank names](). The E-4 mafia, the lance corporal underground, the camouflaged rebels without a cause. You who are about to be NJP’d, we salute you. ![]() Without further ado, here's a round-up of Task & Purpose stories highlighting some of the unsung heroes of 2020: ### Badassery - [The Air Force chief who smoked turkeys and bought Rockstars for his airmen when the commissary ran out]() - [The USS Indiana for flying this badass battle flag on its way back to port]() - [The badass Coastie who opened fire on a friggin’ shark that crashed his crew’s swim call]() - The guy who turned his riding lawnmower into a tank named ‘COVID Killer’ - [‘The Dude’ for being ‘the coolest military working dog ever’]() - [The Army crew who named their howitzer ‘coronavirus’]() - [The USS America for rocking a Captain America flag at sea]() - [The Air Force girlfriend with a ‘BRRRT’ jacket at an A-10 pilot’s homecoming]() - [The Air Force tech sergeant who moonlights as a Star Wars bounty hunter for charity]() - [This airman created an outrageously realistic ‘Iron Man’ suit]() - [The Australian navy for executing an emergency beer run amid the country’s devastating brushfires]() - [The all-women Air Force team that crushed a weapons loading competition dressed as Rosie the Riveter]() ### Heroism - [‘I don’t think I’m special’ says Marine who rescued a baby from a burning car]() - [Special Forces doctor awarded for saving lives despite his own injuries following a motorcycle accident]() - [‘I knew I needed to do something’ — Airman awarded for braving rocket fire to treat wounded during Camp Taji attack]() - [The Marine who saved an elderly woman’s life after she was bitten by a Habu viper]() - [The Marine Corps infantryman who rescued an infant from a burning car]() - [The Army medic who performed life-saving CPR on a stranger at Walmart]() - [These Marines saved the lives of a woman trapped underneath a car]() - [The Army Black Hawk crew who saved a child from hurricane floodwaters in Honduras]() - This Marine vet caught a 3-year-old who was dropped from a burning building - [These Army recruiters dropped everything to respond to a car crash outside their office]() - [The Army recruiter who saved two people in Alaska this year]() - [This Marine rushed to aid an injured police officer after a motorcycle wreck]() ### Belligerence - [Meet ‘Veteran With A Sign,’ the Marine grunt who became a meme philosopher]() - [The airmen who went full Ricky Bobby on the flight line in Saudi Arabia]() - [These airmen marched aboard a C-17 while dressed as minions from ‘Despicable Me’]() - [An Army crew that named their tank ‘Barbie Dreamhouse’]() - [A different Army crew named theirs ‘crippling depression’]() - [Whoever made Steve Carell head of Space Force at the Air Force museum]() - [These mustachioed A-10s (and their pilots) made close air support classy as f---]() - [The Army crew that named their tank ‘Baby Yoda’]() ## Author James Clark is the editor-in-chief of Task & Purpose. He is a former Marine and a veteran of the War in Afghanistan. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [LinkedIn]()