Dotted across our nation are monuments, trails, and highways dedicated to recipients of the Purple Heart. The United States Postal Service has a Purple Heart forever stamp in regular production. The Purple Heart is a military decoration awarded to service members who sustain injuries in battle against the enemy. It’s right that we commemorate and memorialize the sacrifice of our service members who are wounded in battle.

The Purple Heart traces its roots back to George Washington and the Continental Army, the latest iteration being around since the early 1900s. The design of the Purple Heart itself is beautiful. A golden medal shaped like a heart, with a deep purple background, and a profile portrait of George Washington in the middle.

I once read a quote by an Admiral in which he reframes the idea of battlefield injuries. In his mind, when service members who come back from war having lost limbs, we shouldn’t see them as having lost a limb. Rather, we should see that they gave that limb for our freedoms.

Every day, our brothers, sisters, parents, friends, and neighbors get out of bed thousands of miles away from home and stand of the front lines to defend our American way of life. We owe them a profound debt of gratitude.