Our Hallowed Ground: World War II Veterans of Fort Snelling National Cemetery

Fort Snelling National Cemetery is one of 120 national cemeteries across the country. More than 160,000 brave men and women from the Upper Midwestern states of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Iowa lie beneath the field of white marble grave markers. While the acres of white stones are a deeply moving memorial to the strength and sacrifices of a nation, they do not reveal the individual stories of courage.

From the sailors on the USS Ward who fired the first shots at Pearl Harbor to a Japanese-American army medic who served in a devastated Hiroshima, Stephen Chicoine chronicles the untold personal experiences of almost one hundred World War II heroes, from all divisions of the armed services, in every theater. In Our Hallowed Ground we meet Raymond Maxfield from Mankato, Minnesota, who had been given up for dead when he crashed his plane near Bologna, Italy, until, much to everyone’s surprise, he walked into the headquarters of the 94th Fighter Squadron. James Carter from Minneapolis was part of the 93rd Division, an African-American unit that fought in the South Pacific at a time when most black Americans were not considered for combat because of racial prejudice. Incorporating information from military records, the National Archives, family members, and firsthand accounts, Chicoine also tells the peacetime stories of veterans who survived the war.

Complete with archival and personal photographs of courageous Americans who lived during this remarkable time, Our Hallowed Ground honors those of the greatest generation who served a grateful nation in its darkest hour.

Stephen Chicoine is executive director of Twin Cities Urban Reconciliation Network (TURN), a nonprofit organization based in north Minneapolis. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, John Basil Turchin and the Fight to Free the Slaves and The Confederates of Chappell Hill, Texas.