Our friends at What So Proudly We Hail are remembering Memorial Day with a new ebook of stories, speeches, and songs—featuring classic American writers and great American statesmen.

Yesterday, President Barack Obama awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor to Clinton Romesha, a 31-year-old retired staff sergeant in the US Army. In October 2009, Romesha helped to defend Combat Outpost Keating in northeast Afghanistan against an attack by more than 300 Taliban fighters. Before the somber ceremony began in the East Room of the White House, Romesha’s young son, Colin, provided pre-program entertainment for those in attendance.

At 7:55 am on December 7, 1941, the Japanese began their attack on Pearl Harbor, killing 2,390 Americans over the course of the two-hour attack. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, declaring December 7 a “date which will live in infamy,” asked Congress to declare war on Japan. World War II had officially begun for the United States.

Every year, students in Tom Clarke’s high school history class at Lake Central High School in St. John, Indiana, embark upon a research project to track down the families of the state’s battle casualties and learn more about those who died in service to their country. And for each of the 27 years that the project has been assigned, both students and the families they interact with come away moved by the experience.

Over at the “At War” blog of The New York Times, Jonathan Raab, a sergeant in the New York National Guard currently serving in Kuwait, reminds us of the hardships many veterans face when they return home from war–and the responsibility we have to engage them in thoughtful conversation about their concerns.

In April of 2005, while serving as an infantry officer, Army Captain Scott Smiley was injured when a car bomb exploded while he was patrolling the city of Mosul, Iraq. The blast left him temporarily paralyzed on his right side and permanently blind.

Over on his photography blog, Tim Dodd has a moving series of posts about his friend Taylor Morris, who was injured in Afghanistan in May of this year. Working as part of an explosive ordinance disposal team, Morris stepped on an IED, losing both of his legs, his left arm, and his right hand.

This morning, President Barack Obama and his wife laid a wreath at the Pentagon as part of an official observance remembering the events of September 11, 2011. The president also spoke to the families and friends of the victims, remarking that “eleven times we have marked another September 11th come and gone. Eleven times, we have paused in remembrance, in reflection, in unity and in purpose. This is never an easy day.  But it is especially difficult for all of you–the families of nearly 3,000 innocents who lost their lives–your mothers and fathers, your husbands and wives, your sons and your daughters. They were taken from us suddenly and far too soon.”

At our public panel discussion in May on “Monumental fights,” we considered the important role played by public memorials in civic life. Now, writing over at City Journal, Allan Greenberg, a former professor of architecture at Yale and the author of Architecture of Democracy, provides his thoughts on the civic role played by one memorial in particular: the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which turns thirty in November.

What’s happening in the citizenship world? Here’s our mid-week roundup:

Writing earlier this week in the U-T San Diego newspaper, Lisa Deaderick profiles the journey of an inspiring Marine at the University of San Diego. Gunnery Sgt. Gabriel Adibe enlisted in the Marine Corps in June of 2001 out of a desire to serve his country, and he saw the Marines as a group that can make a difference: “When we go into a situation, we like to leave that situation better than we we got there.” After serving as a logistician in the Marines–where he has been deployed to both Indonesia and Afghanistan—in 2009, as part of the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program, Adibe started attending the University of San Diego, where he participates in ROTC.

In the Washington Examiner, James Carafano, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, recently wrote about the “sea of goodwill”–as the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen put it–of the thousands of organizations that seek to help war veterans transition into civilian life upon their return home.

As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day  tomorrow, check out this great video that AEI videographer Sara Barger made to celebrate last year’s Fourth, in which she headed to the National Mall to find out how Americans are celebrating the holiday and why they are proud to be an American.

Writing in Time Magazine, Nate Rawlings reacts to President Obama’s recent order to Homeland Security to stop deporting young undocumented immigrants. Rawlings, a retired U.S. Army officer, notes that the recent executive order allows immigrants under 30 to stay and work in America, but it doesn’t give them a Green Card, which is necessary for immigrants to join the military or become citizens. He writes: “I would make one big exception to that rule for any of those immigrants who join the military. Anyone who’s willing to take the oath of enlistment deserves a shot at citizenship.”

This Monday, May 28, is Memorial Day–the day we honor and remember those who gave their lives in defense of our country. Here are some resources to help us prepare.

Writing in the Atlantic last week, Jeffrey Goldberg points to some recent news stories that “will leave even the most committed cynic slack-jawed in wonder at America’s promise.”

“On Armed Forces Day, let us salute the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen who perform their duties with impeccable courage, commitment, and character, and recognize our moral obligation to serve them and their families as well as they have served us.”

This week, 41 U.S. military veterans graduated from Columbia University’s School of General Studies, the largest number of undergraduate veterans to graduate from the school since World War II. Retired General George W. Casey, the 36th U.S. Army chief of staff and the commanding general for Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2004-2007, gave brief remarks at the graduation ceremony on Sunday.

As another school year draws to a close, graduating ROTC cadets across the nation are being commissioned as officers in the U.S. military. This past Thursday, Gen. (Ret.) Colin Powell administered the commissioning oath to 13 Northeastern University cadets who were made 2nd lieutenants in the Army.

Some recent happenings in the citizenship world:

• The National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) continues to release state-level civic health indexes, most recently for Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Alabama.
• Writing in The Atlantic, Lindsay Windsor and Arthur Rizer argue in favor of the Stolen Valor Act, a law passed by Congress in 2006 that makes it a crime to lie about being awarded a military honor, such as the Purple Heart or the Medal of Honor.
• New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof has a moving article examining the extreme hardships faced by returning veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
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