Which historic military sites have been the most memorable for you?

1) Verdun
2) Atlanta

Just went to Normandy last week- just so emotional.

The Battan Death March in the PI.

Yorktown or Chickamauga. Also, Andersonville.

Although I have seen some military battlefields, including Gettysburg, my favorite and most reflective time was Antietam. I am unashamed to admit that while looking at the ditch between the fences where soldiers were not allowed to surrender, I shed a tear or two.

Dachau, saw it in the late eighties while I was stationed in West Germany. The realization that the hills surrounding the buildings were not originally there, they were built one group at a time... Yeah, nazi death camps have a certain smell that you just won't get out of Gettysburg

I would have to say when I visited the battlefield around Khe Sanh, Vietnam in 1998. Although there are no memorials erected, it's really hard to believe that there was such a tremendous amount of death and destruction during the 66-days siege of continuous bombing and assault. That and every time I visit the Vietnam Memorial in Washington I pause and reflect how many good men were sacrificed for naught!

WEST POINT...I PATROLLED THE MOUNTAINS AROUND WEST POINT TRAINING RANGES

Despite being in the army, it has always been naval battles and ships that fascinated me the most.

The most memorable for me was the Japanese battleship Mikasa, which was Admiral Heihachiro Togo's flagship during the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05. My father gave me a book about the history of the Japanese navy when I about 8-years-old, and the chapters on the Sino-Japanese war and Russo-Japanese war simply fascinated me. A part of that might be the fact that at roughly the same time we visited the USS Olympia at Philadelphia, PA and that vessel of the same "Pre-Dreadnaught" generation.

I've seen pictures of the Mikasa for decades, read many books on the way in general and the battle of Tsushima Straight in particular and even covered it in great detail in my Master's thesis, so when I finally got to see it in person in 2012 it was a very special experience. That day was made even more special by the museum's curator (the Mikasa is a museum now, right next to the US Navy base at Yokosuka). I don't recall his name (lost his card), but we spoke for about two hours during and after an essentially private tour. He saw the way I studied absolutely everything I saw, read each description of the battle and I guess he just recognized the reverence I felt for the place.

That guide was actually a retired Japanese navy captain who had been a young ensign at the end of World War II and had served on the Heavy Cruiser Aoba, which was scuttled at Kure. We spoke about both the Russo-Japanese war and the second world war, especially about technology and its evolution, tactics and morale.

By far, it was the best visit I've ever had to a an old military site, and I've been to many. A very close second place would be the city of Puyo in South Korea, and a cliff called Nakhwaam (낙화암) which means "Falling Flower Mountain". It was the last line of defense for Paekche as the combined T'ang Chinese and Shilla Korean forces not only conquered them, but completely annihilated them (they had it coming after a few centuries of brutal oppression and military superiority). The name comes from a Chinese soldier who was at the bottom looking up at the noble women jumping off the cliff to avoid capture. Their dresses would balloon open and looked like falling flowers. "Nak" is the same character used in Nakhasan, or parachute.

The entire area is a historian's goldmine, but I felt a very special connection with this place as the Paekche kingdom is really at the heart of the split between Japanese and Korean history, with each country having very different descriptions of the same events and even people. If you are stationed in Korea, Puyo, the last Paekche capital, is an absolute must-see.

Ponte du Hoc, Normandy, France. This held a special meaning to me, as Earl Rudder, commanding the 2nd Rangers there, was President of Texas A&M when I was a student (and in the band); Pearl Harbor; Waterloo (different trip); The Alamo, San Jacinto; Many of the Civil War, but especially Gettysburg and Appomattox; Dade Massacre