Frank Luke, Jr.: A Critical Analysis of a Warrior's Psyche, (Paperback)

This research paper takes the story of Frank Luke Jr. and breaks down the mental characteristics that drove his actions. It is useful to those who are interested in the concept of courage, where it comes from, and the type of people who have it. The first chapter is a very brief description of Frank's story to set the context of this discussion. Chapter 2 analyzes the philosophical concepts of courage using the thoughts of Walton and Miller; found in the bibliography. Chapter 3 analyzes Frank's story through Aristotle. This discussion uses Aristotle's ideas of the citizen soldier, experience, passion, a sanguine person, and ignorance of danger as a baseline in defining the courage of Frank Luke. Chapter 4 uses Lt Col (Dr.) Matthew Stafford's concept of a pilot's mental progression through World War I which includes the aspects of fear, invulnerability, calculability, and apathy to explain Frank Luke's actions along with identifying challenges for combat leaders. Finally, the conclusion identifies the major lessons learned from this study.