Hope for America!!

[I_am_not_mafia]

Read the story again and click on the links in the story and watch the videos. Those three men were placed in the situation they were in, out of duty, honor, and loyalty not only to their country, but also to their profession the people they worked with and their families. Integrity and honor has men like this put themselves in harms way, not empathy. Are you so foolish to think these three men 'channeled' the feelings of all of europe and it demanded they make a one way trip?
If you do you do not understand/have any idea why people lay their lives down for others. A good man will die for what he believes period. If that same good man believes in his job, and knows the danger going in before he even accepts his job, then he will have made up his mind that he will give it life for what he does for the sake of the job and the safty of those he works with if his job requires it. Soldiers, firefighters, cops, body guards, life guards, really anyone  who has an element of risk associated with their profession. Even nuclear engineers.

You are assuming a romanticized gesture based on hind sight. eg. that their acts saved Europe. When they decided to go in that reactor they had no idea that people would have blown this up into a grandios heroic "saved europe" thing. They thought that they were simply going to prevent another steam explosion like the one that did the initial damage. and irradiated the city. (which essentially operated like a dirty bomb and not a 5 kilo ton nuclear bomb.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_explosion
(Remember the same 'magma' hit another body of water and is what cause the primary steam explosion that had already done it's damage rendering Chernobyl a lost city.)

You got to remember the USSR is not a nation that prizes empathy. they up hold duty honor and loyality to the Mother land over the individual's rights. Another Nuclear accident on the USSR's K-19 exemplifies this point. It was russia's first Nuclear sub and it too have a coolant valve problem. This time All of europe was not at stake. just national pride and the members of the crew. (which if the members of the crew simply abandoned ship and scuttled the boat they would not have been in danger.) Yet dozens of men went into an active reactor in the mist of a melt down WITH OUT Radiation suits, so as to save the boat without help. Why? was it for your empathy? or was it for the Duty honor and personal integrity I have been talking about?

Again Integrity has a man do the right thing NO MATTER WHAT, your empathy be damned, and these men will continue to do what they understand to be right. You dishonor their memory by putting on them false motivations on what they did. Even in your quoted story the lead guys said "I had to go because I was the only one who knew where the vale was."  That is duty, honor and obligation to his personal integrity. He had to go because his job put him in a position with knowledge that no one else had. This decision was made as a point of logic, (Because A knew of B, Therefore A had to go.) no where in the story are the main players concerned about the rest of europe. You and people like you use 'empathy' to attack and destroy, duty, honor and integrity when it conflicts with your selfish wants and desire. this is a disgusting trait/tactic I see people like you use to manipulate others. It personally sickens me to see you try and use 3 dead hero's honor and integrity to try and peddle your snake oil.

(p.s tl;dr)