Kalsu, Tillman define heroism.(My Turn)

One of the great advantages of living in Washington, D.C., is having a front-row seat to history. In my eight years of representing my state of Oklahoma in Congress, I often ran on the National Mall, home to some of the most profoundly moving and somber monuments ever constructed. Perhaps the most touching is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where the names of 58,235 young American sons and daughters who died for the cause of freedom are etched in black granite.

One of those names is James Robert Kalsu.

On July 12, 1970, 1st Lt. James Robert Kalsu was killed in mortar fire on a hill called Firebase Ripcord. Two days later, James Robert Kalsu Jr. was born back home in Oklahoma.

Bob Kalsu was an offensive lineman for the University of Oklahoma, and--for one season in 1968--the Buffalo Bills. The Army then called up Kalsu, who served in the ROTC at Oklahoma. As the only NFL player to lose his life in Vietnam, Kalsu is the answer to a trivia question that is hardly trivial.

When Bob played for Oklahoma and Buffalo, few, if any, football fans would have considered this man their hero.

I have no idea how much money Bob gave up to serve his country, but the day he put his career aside to fight for freedom--not the day he died--he defined heroism.

When I was a youth pastor in Del City, Okla., I spent many Friday nights watching high school football games in the stadium that bears his name today. Del City High didn't name its stadium for Bob Kalsu because he was a celebrity, but because he was a hero.