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Since we are into poetry, here is and excerpt from one of my favorites by Rudyard Kipling, "Soldier an' Sailor Too".

To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about,
Is nothing so bad when you've cover to 'and, an' leave an' likin' to shout;
But to stand an' be still to the Birken'ead drill is a damn tough bullet to chew,
An' they done it, the Jollies -- 'Er Majesty's Jollies -- soldier an' sailor too!
Their work was done when it 'adn't begun; they was younger nor me an' you;
Their choice it was plain between drownin' in 'eaps an' bein' mopped by the screw,
So they stood an' was still to the Birken'ead drill, soldier an' sailor too!

To me, Rudyard is saying that it is easier to obey an order to run into a fight than it is to obey an order to stand still and die when that is what is required. But that is what we do.

The Birkenhead drill http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Wo ... ren-First/
"Lieutenant-Colonel Seton, the soldier's commanding officer, quickly recognised that such a rush would mean that the lifeboats could be swamped and the lives of the women and children onboard would thus be endangered. He drew his sword and ordered his men to stand fast. The untried soldiers did not move even as the ship split in two and the gallant company slipped down into the waves."

242 years!