In excruciating pain from the shrapnel wounds that would later kill him, Captain David Hicks was supposed to be evacuated to safety.
But the 26-year-old refused to abandon his men and ordered them to let him return to his post, even refusing pain-killing morphine to keep his mind clear for the rearguard action against a Taliban rocket attack.
Such devotion and bravery harkens back to another moment immortalized by Shakespeare in Henry V.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.
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