The modern question of whether to leave America’s fallen buried on foreign soil, or bring them home, had its origin just over 100 years ago as World War I was coming to an end. Over 110,000 Americans had died in France, and many family members wanted the remains returned home. Others, like former President Teddy Roosevelt, who had lost a son in France, said, “We feel that where the tree falls, there let it lie.”

In the spring of 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed a compromise into law.