“I will never leave a fallen comrade,” reads the Soldier’s Creed of the U.S. Army. This same commitment to recovering the dead, the wounded, and the missing in action runs throughout the armed forces. It’s a powerful vow—part of the glue binding together a small unit, a squad or a platoon—an assurance that should a member be killed on the battlefield, someone will come for them.
Memorial Day is this oath writ large for the rest of us. It is our promise that on at least one day each year, we will come for those fallen in America’s wars, to remember them and to rescue them from obscurity.
