Standard heroes possess grit alongside guts (5,3,7)
I believe the answer is:
stars and stripes
'standard' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'heroes possess grit alongside guts' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'grit' could be 'sand' (synonyms) and 'sand' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stars and stripes that I've seen before include "indicators of military rank" , "Standard" , "The US flag" , "indications of rank" , "American flier" .)