Opinion: Protecting America’s battlefields informs future generations

In Colonial Williamsburg, the remains of four Civil War soldiers unearthed by archeologists working to restore an old powder magazine were found with their arms crossed over their chests, a respectful, if hasty battlefield burial. They met their deaths during the May 1862 Battle of Williamsburg. Nearby, three amputated legs believed to be from a battlefield hospital also were discovered — a reminder of the costs of military service.

Last month in South Carolina, 14 Revolutionary War soldiers were given full military honors, almost 250 years after they perished during the Battle of Camden. Among America’s very first citizen soldiers, their remains recently had been discovered only inches beneath the surface of the field where they died during the 1780 battle, erosion bringing them steadily closer to exposure

This followed yet another surprise discovery last summer in New Jersey by archaeologists who happened upon the remains of 13 Hessian soldiers, German soldiers who fought for the British and were killed in 1777 at Fort Mercer during the Battle of Red Bank.

These war dead of centuries past remind us that throughout our nation’s history freedom has not been free. We may never know their names, the exact circumstances of their deaths or their final words. But what we do know is they were all buried where they died — on the battlefields that forged our young nation.

And we can be sure there are countless other warriors — my early brothers of the U.S. military — whose remains are interred on these hallowed grounds. Battlefields truly are cemeteries of our war dead, deserving of reverence and respect.

Yet far too often, these places are concealed beneath strip malls, bulldozed for housing developments or demolished for data centers. It’s a pattern that plays out daily, as these blood-soaked grounds are lost to data centers in Virginia, highway improvement projects in North Carolina and cookie-cutter housing developments in Pennsylvania. I am grateful to those determined to safeguard these places, from locally focused organizations to the American Battlefield Trust on the national level, that are working to set these battlefields aside for posterity and so that we, and future generations, may learn from them.

As the president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, I have the privilege to travel our amazing country to speak to people — especially young Americans — about the nature of valor and sacrifice. With my fellow recipients, I welcome the opportunity to engage with communities and help them realize that every one of us is capable of amazing things.

The medal I wear, our nation’s highest military honor, is far more than an individual distinction; it is a symbol of courage, commitment, patriotism and honor. To me, it represents to me all those who are serving, all who have served — and those who gave their lives for our country.

Too many of those fallen have gone largely unrecognized, their courage and devotion unheralded. Many of them lie in unknown graves, an uncertain number still on the battlefields themselves. These, we know, made the ultimate sacrifice. And that merits our attention and respect.

I hope that all Americans, especially families with children, may be — in the words of Joshua Chamberlain, who earned the Medal of Honor at the Battle of Gettysburg — “heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them” and visit our battlefields, military cemeteries, and similar places of memory to reflect on the sacrifices made to forge the nation we are today.

Retired U.S. Army MSgt. Leroy A. Petry of Steilacoom, Washington, was awarded our nation’s highest honor for conspicuous gallantry and heroism in action while serving in Afghanistan with the 75th Ranger Regiment in May 2008. President Barack Obama presented him the Medal of Honor in July 2011. Learn more about the Medal of Honor at the Congressional Medal of Honor website, cmohs.org, and about battlefield preservation at the American Battlefield Trust website, battlefields.org.