Normandy American Cemetery
*Photo Courtesy of www.abmc.gov
We decided to do something a little bit different this year. About 7 months ago, my friend Jeff who lives in Arizona sent me a YouTube video which showed another country having a huge Memorial Day Celebration remembering American Fallen Heroes.
I tried desperately to Google that video, but came up short. I do remember when we were looking up the history of Perth Amboy’s WWII Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient (who Sadowski Parkway is named in his honor) Sgt. Joseph Sadowski that I came upon a YouTube video (posted by Matthew Hermes) showing Sadowski being honored with a Memorial in France. Colonel James (Jimmie) Leach who knew Sadowski personally and was the commander of Company B, 37th Tank Battalion at the time of Sgt. Sadowski’s death, spoke at the ceremony.
Follow this link to the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5hwORf09Nc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
After seeing this video, I was curious to see how many other countries have memorials or cemeteries honoring American Fallen Heroes.
What I came up with was very moving. In the United States, we have many ceremonies nationwide honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Unfortunately as with other patriotic holidays, it has become very commercialized with big sales.
The following information is from https://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memorials#.V0Xg2zY4WQc
The American Battle Monuments Commission administers, operates and maintains 25 permanent American military cemeteries and 27 federal memorial, monuments and markers, which are located in 16 foreign countries, the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the British Dependency of Gibraltar; three of the memorials are located within the United States. These cemeteries and memorials, most of which commemorate the service and sacrifice of Americans who served in World War I and World II, are among the most beautiful and meticulously maintained shrines in the world.
The Following Information is from an article: Overseas burial grounds honor fallen Americans By Michael Luongo, Special to CNN The ABMC was created by Congress in 1923. Foreign Cemeteries for American Military Members existed earlier, but most conflicts before them were fought at home or incurred fewer casualties.
France has the most at 11, Belgium 3, the United Kingdom and Italy 2 and Luxemburg and the Netherlands 1. Other Cemeteries include: Mexico City, Panama, the Philippines etc. A new memorial opened up in South Korea in 2013.
For a complete list of military cemeteries unkept by the ABMC go to he following information is from https://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memorials.
I want to thank ABMC for maintaining these important memorials worldwide.
Remember Our Fallen Heroes especially on Memorial Day, Monday, May 30th and year round. C.M.
