120,000 American service members are buried overseas -
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • last year • 12 commentsBy: Archibald MacLeish (InForum)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
More than 5,000 markers cover more than 50 acres of ground in Luxembourg. The cemetery contains the remains of some American servicemembers who perished in the Battle of the Bulge.
Not all casualties of war make it home. In many cases, Memorial Day will still be observed at their graves.
The American Battle Monuments Commission operates 26 burial grounds on foreign soil. The cemeteries are the final resting place of more than 120,000 American military personnel killed or missing in action in conflicts since World War I, according to the American Battle Monuments Commission's website.
During World War I, eight American cemeteries were developed near field hospitals along the front lines in Belgium and France. Nearly 31,000 Americans were buried in those cemeteries.
The American Battle Monuments Commission's database lists information about the soldiers buried in the cemeteries including the state of enlistment but not the soldiers birthplace or hometown.
In 1923, control of those cemeteries was transferred to the newly created American Battle Monuments Commission.
That same year, the American Overseas Memorial Day Association, another new organization, held Memorial Day programming at Flanders Field American Cemetery in Belgium.
U.S. Gen. Black Jack Pershing attended many of the early services there and in 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh dropped poppies out of his plane on the cemetery grounds as part of the program, according to the American Overseas Memorial Day Association's website.
The U.S. military allows the next of kin of fallen servicemen to decide if the body is returned to the family or interred near where they have fallen, according to Department of Defense information. Bodies can be buried in the family's cemetery of choice, a veterans cemetery in the U.S. or in an American Battle Monuments Commission cemetery overseas.
During the 1940s, the American Battle Monuments Commission added 14 cemeteries, including ones in the Pacific Theater, and nearly 93,000 graves to its sacred ground. Records indicate 881 of those fallen soldiers enlisted in North Dakota, according to the American Battle Monuments Commission's records.
The graves in cemeteries dedicated to the fallen of World War I and World War II are marked with polished white marble crosses for Christian soldiers and polished white marble Stars of David for Jewish soldiers.
Some of the cemeteries are dedicated to the fallen of a particular battle, according to the brochure issued at the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial.
The Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial includes 5,075 markers for the fallen associated with the Battle of Bulge and late military actions.
The field of shining white markers include 4,958 crosses and 119 Stars of David. The markers include 371 missing soldiers who were declared killed in action but their bodies were never recovered. And, according to American Battle Monuments Commission statistics, the markers include 22 sets of brothers and one woman.
Gen. George Patton is buried in one of the graves at Luxembourg.
Along with the graves, the cemetery includes a chapel, fountains, monuments and informational displays about the Battle of the Bulge. One of the monuments includes the quotation, "Time will not dim the glory of their deeds," by Pershing.
The American Battle Monuments Commission's website says the cemeteries are not considered American territory. The lands have been dedicated in perpetuity by the local countries to the U.S. government.
Later wars have added graves to some cemeteries.
Servicemen missing in action from Vietnam are memorialized at Honolulu Memorial Cemetery in Hawaii. This includes 17 Vietnam casualties and two Korean conflict fallen who enlisted in North Dakota.
Most of the Battle Monuments' cemeteries accept remains only of recently recovered soldiers killed in the historic conflict association with the cemetery, according to its website.
The American Battle Monuments Commission's cemeteries are administered by a board of directors and publishes an annual report of its activities. The commission had a budget of $89.5 million in 2025. It employs about 528 people around the world largely in landscaping and maintenance jobs. It is part of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Brochures prepared by the American Battle Monuments Commission say the commission's mission statement is based on a line from a poem by Archibald MacLeish titled "The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak."
The words "We Leave You Our Deaths, Give Them Their Meaning" is engraved on the World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C., administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission.
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Battle Hymn Of The Republic - US Army Band And Chorus
Thank you JR.
Visited here in 2014. Very emotional visit.
As many times as I have been to the Philippines, I never knew there was a cemetery in Manila for American troops and sailors lost in WW2. My wife and I heard about it and had a tour guide take us there last year
It is a beautiful, well kept grounds with several buildings that have the names of those missing engraved on the walls, especially in lost ships. If there are remains found and identified, there is a star engraved to the name. Very solemn place.
Visit the Manila American Cemetery
Did a couple battlefied tours while posted to Germany and have visited more than a few US, Canadian, British and German WW2 cemetaries in Europe it's always a somber experience
Canadians, as well as other members of the Commonwealth of Nations. observe Remembrance Day on November 11, for the same purpose as American Memorial Day. Flanders Fields marks where a cemetary of allied soldiers who lost their lives during WW1 lie buried. Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae wrote this famous poem, which can apply to all fallen allies:
Been to the Punchbowl National cemetery in Hawaii, Arlington several times and Beaufort SC, Washington Crossing PA.
They are all hallowed ground and pages of history, none more so than the Arizona itself.
AMERICAN ANTHEM - WEST POINT BAND
I've had the honor of visiting several US military cemeteries in France and Belgium. The care given to these site is inspiring.
If that photo did not bring a tear to one's eye, that one would have to be a zombie.