Sacred Ground: A Tribute to America's Veterans

 Author's Summary

Sacred Ground" is a sweeping tour of some of America's most beautiful and moving cemeteries, Sacred Ground features richly evocative photographs from military cemeteries across the country, enhanced by poignant quotes, powerful essays, and speeches from famous Americans throughout history. 

MWSA Review

MWSA 2009 Gold Medal for Non-Fiction

This beautifully presented coffee-table photo album of America's military cemeteries is dedicated to "every man and woman who has, who is currently, and who will proudly wear the uniform of our great country. Without them, so many freedoms we take for granted would not be possible."

Roaming across our beloved land in every season: The South, The Northeast, the Midwest and The West, SACRED GROUND respectfully escorts you into the serenity of the last resting places of our fellow citizens who gave their all in the duty of creating and defending our Union, within and beyond our borders. Accompanying these exquisite photographs are profound and simple essays by patriots and excerpts from presidential addresses.

This is a tome to be treasured for as you turn the pages of brilliant scene after brilliant scene of calm and color, you will read the thoughts and thanks of such citizens as Thomas Paine, Andrew Jackson, Mickey Rooney, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Oliver North, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ann Margret, Ronald Reagan, Bob Hope and Sean Hannity on sacrifice, honor and courage. Along the way you will also learn the history of that most poignant of bugle calls, Taps, the words to the familiar prayers of each branch of Service and to the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

I thought to tell of my favorite photos such as the Vietnam Veteran kneeling in the grass in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri; or the Christmas wreathes and red bows set in snow-covered Togus National Cemetery, Maine; or the fawn nestled beside a tombstone in the Bath National Cemetery, New York; or the leis and flags in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii, or... until it dawned on me that every page becomes a favorite.

Sacred Ground is worthy of a special place in your library, to be lingered over when we remember those who fought and died so we might continue to live in freedom: our Fallen Heroes and our Veterans. Consider it also as a gift for the grieving families you know, for in its broad scope of our history and these sacred places in our Nation, it will surely bring some measure of dignity, peace and comfort.

All royalties from the sale of this book are donated to the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, for the children of fallen soldiers.

Reviewed by: Dave Brown (2009)

MWSA Tom Ruck