There are 124,913 U.S. war dead interred in America's overseas military cemeteries, including 30,921 from World War I, 93,242 from World War II and 750 from the Mexican War. In addition, 5,857 American personnel are interred in the Mexico City and Corozal American cemeteries in Mexico and Panama. Another 90,120 U.S. servicemembers, listed as missing in action or lost or buried at sea during the World Wars and the Korean and Vietnam Wars, are commemorated individually by name on stone tablets at the World War I and II cemeteries and three memorials in the United States.
The Battle Monuments Commission does an incredible job of maintaining the graves of our fallen soldiers. There are over 5,000 of them at Henri-Chapelle alone. If you have the name of the fallen you can easily find his or her grave, and if you request it, they will take photographs of the grave for you and return them via email or regular international mail within days of your request.
In order to make the inscription on the cross or Star of David stand out better in a photograph, the lettering is filled in with contrasting beach sand for the photo. The sand used can only come from Omaha Beach at Normandy (the site where over 2,000 American GIs fought and died on D-Day) because only sand from hallowed ground can be used to touch a grave marker that marks a hallowed site.
Comments
Post a Comment