BIOGRAPHIES OF NATIONAL HEROES FROM ARMED FORCES CIRCLES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE & SECURITY Centre for Armed Forces History 1986INTRODUCTION The Indonesian Government has so far recognised Heroes with various titles:: National Heroes, Heroes of the National Independence Struggle, Heroes of the Nationalist Movement. and Heroes of the Revolution. Out of the 87 people receiving the title of Hero, 22 have come from Armed Forces circles. or approximately <. This shows the place and the role of the Armed Forces in the life of Nation and State. The title of Hero is given to someone wha. whilst he was alive. performed some deed or deeds beyond the call of duty. He gave great and praiseworthy service for the public interests, to defend and to raise the dignity of Nation and State. Such acts and service are called heroic acts. The essence of heroism is that jt is an example for coming generations, to which they can hold asa guide and which will be a source of inspiration to them. In order that comting generations can follow the example of the heroes, coming generations need to be given information about why those leaders were recognised Heroes, about what their services were and what great deed it was that they did for the interests of Nation and State. One of the means of conveying such information is the writing of their biographies. no matter how shert those biographies may be. Of course, these short articles are still far from having the characteristics and quality of a biography. But this book might be used as the basis for more complete works, that would automatically need more thorough research and a longer time to write. The aim of the present work is not only just to disclose the struggle of the National Heroes who come from Armed Forces circles, but, over and above that, !to enable their struggle to be thoroughly realised by the young generation of Indonesia in general and the young generation of the Armed Forces in particular. Naturally. differences will be found between the character of their struggle and what it is possibie for coming generations to do. Those differences atise out of the differences in time and situation in which the different generations live. But the essence of heroism has a universal character and is the same for all ages. Jakarta, 30 July 1980 Director of the Centre for Armed Forces History, NUGROHO NOSOTUSANTO Brigadier—General ey