It's the summer of 1958 in Verdun France. A 15-year-old American boy and his father reverently

walk across the site of what was one of the bloodiest battles of World War I. The battle

of Verdun had taken place on the French Western Front between February and December of

2016 and had left nine French towns in complete ruin. A French lieutenant had famously written

of the battle, Hell cannot be so terrible. The boy has visited a number of battlefields

with his father, but something about this one feels different. How many died, Dad? Hard

to say exactly, son. But more than half a million were wounded or killed here. The battle

lasted over 300 days. A lot of the French and German dead were never identified. The boy's

father is a career military man, having served in Korea and Vietnam. Now stationed in Orléans

France, he's made it a point to expose his sons to the remnants of both World Wars throughout

the country. Let's move on, I want to show you something. It's a cemetery, but not like

the ones you're used to seeing. They make their way to the Duomong, Auxuerie, memorial

building on the Verdun battlefield. Once inside, they head to a lower level. There, just

beyond a pane of glass, the boy sees the bones of over 130,000 dead. The sight of skulls

stacked on top of each other hits the boy in a way nothing ever has. Where'd they come

from? Well, they found the bodies of these men rotting on the battlefield. Torn, blown

apart. A bishop thought they deserved a better rest than that, so they built this memorial.

All these people died in the battle. For what? Well, the freedoms you take for granted, son,

they come at a price. They were paid for in blood. But they're a fable, even in a country

you think is invulnerable. It can all go away. Prosperity, safety, it's all fragile. So we have

to think about how we stop it from happening. Soldiers are brave, but they can only do so

much. It's up to others. It's up to leaders. We need leaders who can look forward. We can

...