In 1987, at a fish fry near Toledo, Ohio, a World War II veteran named Roger Durbin asked Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) a question about a memorial dedicated to those who served in the war. The question: Why wasn't there one?

Seventeen years later, on May 29, 2004, the answer will be formally unveiled on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with the dedication of the National World War II Memorial.

I watched one day as a news reporter interviewed a Muslim student in the lecture hall of one of America’s most prestigious schools. The young man was adorned with a silk headpiece and appeared to come from a very wealthy Arab family I supposed. When asked whether Israel had a right to live in peace in the land that they now held as their homeland he became flustered and indignant. He said, “Who is Israel and what history do they have, who ever heard of Israel before now.”

In my book, "Silent Battlefields: A Novel," I write about Holocaust survivors and their adult children. In addition, there is a character in the book that had been a Hitler Youth and German soldier, as well as his young adult Child. Although this piece stresses Jewish people, the vast majority of the Holocaust victims, inclusive of those taken to concentration and death camps were political prisoners, criminals, developmentally disabled persons, gays, and so called "gypsies."

The Korean War is sometimes referred to as the "Forgotten War" because it seems to have receded from the national consciousness-eclipsed in large part by the continuing legacy of the Vietnam War. On July 27, the nation paid overdue tribute to the Americans who served in Korea when President Clinton and South Korean president Kim Young Sam helped dedicate the Korean War Veterans Memorial in the nation's capital.

On May 10, 1968, at three o'clock in the morning at Ngok Tavak, a Forward Operating Base near the Vietnam-Laos border, a small force of U.S. Marines, a handful of Australian and U.S. Special Forces, and 122 ethnic Chinese Nungs working under the command of Australian Capt. John White engaged elements of an invading North Vietnamese Army division and Viet Cong guerrillas. Ngok Tavak was not the primary target of the vastly superior NVA force. The FOB stood in the way of NVA's primary goal Kham Duc, five kilometers to the north, the last Special Forces camp still standing in the area.

Military history is composed of the events in the history of humanity that fall within the category of conflict. This may range from a melee between two tribes to conflicts between proper militaries to a world war affecting the majority of the human population. Military historians record (in writing or otherwise) the events of military history.