I have been blessed to stand on many historical sites and battlefields. Each experience moves the soul as your mind tries to picture what men went through on the piece of ground you are observing. Peering down through the timber on Little Round Top at Gettysburg, you feel the sense of urgency and courage that prompted a schoolteacher from Maine to order a bayonet charge after his men had run out of ammunition. Gen. Robert E. Lee’s stubbornness, combined with the heroics of men like Joshua Chamberlin, make this battlefield one of the best places to lose yourself in history.

Burnside’s Bridge at Antietam in northwestern Maryland and the Stone Wall at Fredericksburg, Va., are two other Civil War vistas where one can close their eyes and imagine the terrible fear and horror which surely, on some level, still lingers in the soil of these remarkable places.

Visiting the old Texas book depository in Dallas, which is now a museum, and standing in the window where Lee Harvey Oswald was on Nov. 22, 1963, brought me an overwhelming sense of history, perhaps in part because I vaguely remember that terrible day. Who, when watching the film, does not feel themselves wanting to shout as President John F. Kennedy’s car makes that fateful left turn onto Elm Street?

And while I have not had the privilege of visiting Normandy, France, which I understand is a powerful trip, there is another truly unique site where one cannot only experience a battle but stand on a place that enables a person to envision all of World War II, especially the Pacific theater.

That place is Pearl Harbor, and the location is the deck of the USS Missouri. Of course, the main attraction at Pearl is the Arizona Memorial, and anyone who has experienced the quiet as they watch the oil trickle to the surface can attest to its impact.

But standing on the “Mighty Mo,” specifically, by the plaque which marks the place where the Japanese surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945, a person can look down Battleship Row, to where the Arizona met her fate on Dec. 7, 1941. You are standing where WWII ended, and looking down at the start.

My son is a captain in the U.S. Air Force, currently stationed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. For me, having the experience of standing on the deck of the Missouri and looking down toward the Arizona Memorial was profound.

Being there to envision where WWII began, and then ended four years later, touched my heart. And I pray for vision sharp and clear, for our country and our future generations.

As we remember Dec. 7, that “date of infamy,” I would encourage every American to visit a site where history was made. Picture what occurred, especially what and how the participants must have felt. Listen closely and let history speak to you. And if you ever have the chance, visit Pearl Harbor and stand in the one place where you can see the beginning and the end of a powerful conflict that reshaped the world.

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Walter Sparks, of Chesterfield, Mo., recently visited Pearl Harbor.