The demise of military history

This month, Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta will become the first living Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War. President Barack Obama will present it to Giunta for actions under fire in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley in 2007. The Iowa native was on his second tour of duty when his actions in an ambush earned him the nation’s highest honor and cost him the life of one of his best friends.

Congress passed a resolution last month declaring November U.S. Military History Month. The bill was introduced by Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn.

“We use the word hero far too much these days, but if you look into the military history of our nation you will find amazing stories of some true heroes — men and women whose courage, sacrifice, and accomplishments made the United States the greatest nation in the World,” Duncan said.

The year 2011 will be a banner year for American commemorations of the nation’s military past. It will be the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City, the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the 150th anniversary of start of the U.S. Civil War. Amateur historians are planning large battle re-enactments for 2011. Cities and states from Maine to Florida have Civil War Sesquicentennial committees and are heavily promoting heritage tourism destinations during the observance.

Recognizing U.S. military accomplishment is a sentiment shared by most Americans. In the Oval Office address to the nation on the drawing down of troops in Iraq, President Obama said, “Every American who serves joins an unbroken line of heroes that stretches from Lexington to Gettysburg; from Iwo Jima to Inchon; from Khe Sanh to Kandahar — Americans who have fought to see that the lives of our children are better than our own.”

The truth is these sailors and soldiers are returning to a nation that no longer embraces their service as a serious educational subject. From the Revolutionary War to Afghanistan, the nation’s military legacy includes decisive victories and painful defeats. Foreign nations’ historians were often awed and wrote extensively about the unique strategies, tactics and fighting abilities of the U.S. soldier.

In the commercial marketplace of book sales, cable television and movie rentals, U.S. military history is booming. Films on the subject have won Oscars and writers have taken Pulitzer Prizes home for their stories on American military topics. A Publishers Weekly article revealed book sellers are poised to release a bevy of new titles next year on the subject.

The news scholastically is dismal, especially in public schools. Military history has all but vanished from America’s educational mainstream. What was once regarded as a core subject in a classical education has become irrelevant. Teaching military history requires instructing students there are times when wars are justified. It requires defining traitors and heroes by academic guidelines. The politicizing of patriotism has neutered this subject. Sterile ideologies developed to avoid professorial jingoism have proven to be as responsible as anti-American ones in the demise of military history.

Smaller colleges are trying to fill the void, but the academic offerings are dwindling. Most Ivy League colleges don’t have a single faculty member who specializes in military history.

This absence trickled down to public school systems generations ago. Gone from U.S. textbooks are the commanders and the battles; the stories of remarkable citizen soldiers who walked away from the safety of their fields, stores and factories and stepped into history’s pages are forgotten. The sociological impacts of armed conflicts or political movements relating to U.S. wars now dominate classroom instruction.

American military history remains one subject where students can peer past media images to see an undivided nation at work. In those academic texts, are found invaluable life lessons of men and women of all races and creeds who made remarkable individual achievements. Many stories represent the best of humanity and ensure citizen-soldiers like Giunta are never forgotten.

Legislating a U.S. military history month in the same one that the nation honors its veterans is commendable. A time set aside to remember the nation’s military legacy in public places and American schools is needed and worth supporting.