Busch Family: Like many young men, they may have joined the army in hopes of a reason common to black men: If they served their country, this country might finally treat them as an American.

I’m not sure I understand patriotism even now. But, maybe the Busch farrier, the Briggs infantry volunteer, or the soldier with the colored infantry in the Civil War, like their Bush progenic brothers serving in the United States army during the 1950s — understood exactly what they were doing when they signed up.

Black soldiers often pointed out that they did not passively wait for freedom to be granted but, as soldiers, helped win the wars that reaffirmed liberty and put an end to injustices.

In every war this nation has waged since that first one, black Americans have fought. Today, black men are the most likely of all racial groups to serve in the United States military.

Black soldiers knew that our people’s contributions to building the richest and most powerful nation in the world were ineradicable and that the United States simply would not have existed without them.