Back in 2011, when I first arrived in Congress, I came across an article in the local newspaper telling of an archaeological excavation down in Monterrey, Mexico. The archeologists found skeletal remains that they believed to be the bodies of Tennesseans who fought in the 1846 Battle of Monterey during the Mexican American war.
As the daughter, wife and mother of servicemen, I have a strong appreciation for the contributions of our U.S. military, and after hearing about these Tennessee soldiers that never returned home, I began a years-long journey toward a dignified burial for these veterans in their home state.
Our efforts started in 2012 when I wrote a letter to Obama Administration officials asking them to give our veterans a proper burial at the Mexican War Memorial in the Gallatin City Cemetery. The response I received informed us that this was an evolving matter that the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City was working diligently on but “the final decision rests with the Mexican government.”
I was incredulous. Since when do we leave the fate of our veterans in the hands of a foreign government–and whatever happened to bringing every last soldier home from the battlefield?
With the help of the anthropologist team at Middle Tennessee State University, I continued to monitor the situation. I again sent letters to the State Department and Department of Defense pleading for an update on the status of their communications with the Mexican government. We received the same fruitless response as before: “The Department continues to press our Mexican counterparts…”
The Mexican government — and our own federal bureaucracy — was keeping us in a holding pattern, and more importantly, they were keeping our fallen heroes from returning home where they belonged.
There were times when I thought it would have been easy to wash our hands of the matter and leave well enough alone, but when I considered relenting I was convicted with the knowledge that these were the bodies of our men who had been left in a foreign land. They weren’t faceless names in an old, dusty book of records — they were real people, who left behind all they knew to fight in a war which would ultimately demand their lives.
After all, it was this very war that solidified our status as the “Volunteer State.” President James K. Polk, himself a Tennessee native, asked for 2,800 of our own to answer a call to serve, and 30,000 Tennesseans responded. These soldiers were among the ranks of servicemen who earned Tennessee its nickname. We couldn’t forsake them now. The only honorable outcome was to bring them home.
Eventually, I was connected with a separate department-head at the U.S. Army who informed us that, upon these soldiers’ return to the US, they would conduct DNA testing to try to learn the identities of these Volunteer State heroes. I was told that if a DNA match is not possible, their remains will be classified as “unknowns,” requiring them to be buried in a National Cemetery.
Although the Mexican American War Memorial in Gallatin was the location of our initial request for burial, I began to worry that these veterans may not return to Tennessee for their final resting place. We urged the Secretary of the Army to consider the Nashville National Cemetery, Chattanooga National Cemetery, or the Memphis National Cemetery if final burial in Gallatin was not feasible.
Thankfully, after five years of negotiations with the Mexican Government these remains have finally been returned to U.S. soil, giving these soldiers the opportunity to come home to the country they loved and died to defend.
On September 28th, I attended what is called a repatriation of remains “solemn movement” at Dover Air Force Base, where I joined military personnel and MTSU representatives to formally welcome these heroes home. I may not know these soldiers’ names, and I may never get the chance to, but they deserve our honor and gratitude all the same.
As we await the results of forensic testing, we do so with hope that these heroes are identified and returned to their families so that, somewhere in Tennessee, a handful of young sons and daughters would know of the patriotism and courage displayed by a family patriarch they never even knew and would gain a deeper love of their country in the process.
Sometimes it takes 170 years to do it, but Tennesseans can be proud to know that the United States has once again honored a sacred creed: leave no man behind.
