shipped home for burial in either a national or a private cemetery, or (2) buried in one of the permanent World War II military cemeteries to be established overseas, or (3) buried in a private cemetery in a foreign country which was the homeland of either the deceased or the next of kin. The sum of $190,869,000 was made available for the program; later this was found to be more than was needed and was reduced to a total of $163,869,000. Adjusted to the end of fiscal year 1957, our World War II dead coming under the operation of the program have been determined to total 360,817. Of these, 281,869 have been recovered and 78,948 declared unrecoverable. The recovered dead are interred as followsIn private cemeteries in the U.S. In national cemeteries in the U.S. In national cemeteries outside ....132,801 38,475 13,653 the U.S. In permanent American military cemeteries overseas 93,137 3,803 .281,869 In private cemeteries overseas Total or Of the recovered dead, 273,375 about 97% were identified, a tribute to the remarkable efficiency of the responsible authorities. KOREAN WAR. Following the outbreak of this conflict a Central Graves Registration Office, Far East, was established in Tokyo to coordinate the search, recovery, identification, and final disposition operations of the command for all three of the Armed Services. The first bodies shipped to the United States under the Korea Return Program (50 identified remains) arrived at San Francisco on 22 March 1951. (This is believed to have been the first time in history that combat dead were returned to their next of kin, from an oversea area, while combat operations were still going on.) In April of 1952 air evacuation from the Korean front to Kokura, Japan, was inaugurated. This made it possible for bodies of men killed in battle to be en route to the United States for final interment in an average of about 30 days from date of death. Under the terms of the Korean Armistice Agreement each side would be permitted to enter the territory under the control of the other side to disinter the graves of record and recover the remains of their dead. When negotiations were opened in March 1954 to carry out the provisions of the Agreement, the Communists would not agree to the entry of United Nations military personnel in North Korea, but proposed instead a mutual exchange of remains at a point in the Demilitarized Zone, a mile-wide buffer zone set up by the Armistice Agreement. After repeated efforts to negotiate this variation in the Agreement the United Nations representatives had no alternative but to agree to the Communist terms. The exchange known as "Operation Glory" was accomplished during September and October 1954. A total of 4,167 bodies were delivered to the United Nations Forces, and 13,528 enemy dead were disinterred from United Nations held territory and turned over to the Communist forces. Identification of remains delivered to the United Nations was complicated by the fact that the Communist forces made no attempt to preserve identification media and clues in their disinterment operations. Of the 36,923 U.S. military personnel whose names were furnished the Grave Registration Service as missing. missing in action, or killed in action in the Korean fighting, the bodies of 29,586 have been recovered and 8,190 declared unrecoverable. Of the recovered remains 28,733 or about 97% have been identified. TRIBUTE TO THE UNKNOWN DEAD OF THE WORLD WAR II AND KOREA, The unidentified bodies of two American soldiers, one from each of these conflicts, were shipped early in 1958 to Arlington National Cemetery for interment near the grave of the Unknown Soldier of World War I. CEMETERIES, MEMORIALS, AND MONUMENTS These fall into two main groups; those in the continental United States or its possessions and those in foreign countries. AMERICAN CEMETERIES. What is known as the "National Cemetery System" consists of 85 national cemeteries. 22 soldiers' lots, 7 Confederate ceme teries and plots, 2 Confederate monuments, 1 prison park, and 3 other miscellaneous activities—a total of 120. The Quartermaster General, under the direction of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil-Military Affairs, is responsible for the establishment, development, operation, maintenance, and administration of the National Cemetery System and for the formulation of related plans, policies, procedures, and regulations. In addition, there are 12 national cemeteries which were formerly administered as part of the above system, but have since been declared to be "national shrines" and transferred to Alabama the jurisdiction of the National Parks Service in the Department of the Interior. In cases where these cemeteries are still open for additional burials, the QMG handles the administrative work connected therewith. Of the 97 national cemeteries proper there are 85 which still have space for burials (including 79 of the 85 cemeteries which are under the jurisdiction of the QMG, and 6 of the 12 which are under the Parks Service). The remaining 12 are inactive and closed to future burials. The following is a list of national cemeteries which do and do not still have available grave space. LIST OF NATIONAL CEMETERIES HAVING AVAILABLE GRAVE SPACE • Cemeteries under jurisdiction of Department of Interior. 101 Memorial Drive St. Louis 23, Missouri HEADSTONES. In 1872 Congress first appropriated money for headstones of durable stone for use in national cemeteries. Today the Quartermaster General is authorized to furnish, at Government expense, headstones and markers for the unmarked graves of soldiers of the Union and Confederate Armies of the Civil War; for the unmarked graves of all members of the Armed Forces of the United States who died in the service; for the graves of former members whose last service terminated honorably; and for all unmarked graves in post and national cemeteries. By 1 January 1958 approximately 2,170,000 headstones and markers had been furnished since 1872. CEMETERIES AND MONUMENTS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. As explained above, these are under the jurisdiction of the American Battle Monuments Commission. At each of the cemeteries, the Commission has erected, or is in process of erecting, suitable memorial structures. It has also built many monuments at sites, other than cemeteries, which are of historic significance in connection with the operations of our Armed Forces. Cemeteries and Monuments, World War I. There are eight military cemeteries on foreign soil for our dead of World War I, as follows Aisne-Marne, near Belleau (Aisne), France. St. Mihiel, Thiaucourt (M. et M.), France. At each cemetery there is a memorial chapel, designed by an eminent American architect, beautiful in design and restful in spirit, where visitors may go for meditation and prayer. The chapels are nondenominational. Five of the cemeteries in France, and the one in Belgium, are on American battlefields. On the walls of the chapels at each of these are inscribed the names of American soldiers who lost their lives in the vicinity and whose bodies were never identified. In addition, the chapel at the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery bears the names of the unidentified dead of the Services of Supply and of the American expedition to northern Russia. The names of American soldiers and sailors who lost their lives by sea appear on the walls of the Suresnes and Brookwood chapels. The Commission has also erected, and it maintains, monuments of various types at other locations associated with our participation in World War I, as follows Audenarde, Belgium. Bellicourt (Aisne), France. CEMETERIES, WORLD WAR II. In 1947 fourteen sites in foreign countries were selected by the Secretary of the Army, with the assistance of the American Battle Monuments Commission, for permanent military cemeteries, as follows vados), France. Rhône (at Draguignan, Var), France. Ardennes (near Neuville-en-Condroz), Belgium. Henri-Chapelle, Belgium. Netherlands (near Margraten), Holland. Sicily-Rome (Nettuno, near Rome), Italy. In these cemeteries were to be concentrated the American dead from the several hundred temporary cemeteries that had been previously established by the Quartermaster General's Graves Registration Service, which were not to be otherwise disposed of in accordance with the wishes of next-of-kin (see above). The project was carried out cooperatively by the Battle Monuments Commission and the Graves Registration Service. The Commission selected fourteen outstanding American architects, each to design one of the cemeteries complete; the general layout, the graves plots, and the memorial structure would be integrated into a harmonious whole. On approval of the architect's plan for a cemetery, the Graves Registration Service interred the bodies in accordance therewith and handled the associated administrative work. Beginning in the latter part of 1949, the permanent interments having been virtually completed, the cemeteries were progressively transferred to the Commission by Executive Order. The other elements of the architects' plans were then executed, step by step, under the Commission's supervision. For the design of the various memorials no specific requirement was imposed upon the architects beyond the budgeted cost, except that each should embody these features A small devotional chapel. Inscription of the names and particulars of the missing in the region. A graphic record, in permanent form, of the services of our troops. These requirements have been interpreted in a wide and interesting variety of forms. con An important motive for the construction of the memorials was the implied undertaking by our Government to record by monuments the achievements of our Armed Services, since, by Department orders, the erection of monuments by the troops (which unfortunately have been found to be often poorly designed, poorly structed and lacking provision for maintenance) was expressly forbidden. The "permanent graphic" record takes the form of maps, usually quite large murals, amplified by descriptive texts in English as well as the language of the country in which the cemetery is situated. The historical data (in the form of map layouts and texts) were prepared by the American Battle Monuments Commission; the maps were rendered in tasteful presentation by experienced artists. In no two cases is the method-or even the materialsthe same; the map may be of layered marbles, or in fresco, perhaps in bronze relief, or in ceramics. Another feature of interest at each memorial is the two sets of "Key-Maps": "The War Against Germany" and "The War Against Japan." Each set consists of three maps, each covering about one-third of the period of our participation in the war. By these Key-Maps each major battle may be related to all others in time and space. In the World War I military cemetery at Suresnes in France, where on ceremonial occasions representatives of the American and French Governments pay homage to our dead, 24 unidentified American dead of World War II were interred. The chapel was enlarged and converted into a shrine to commemorate those who gave their lives in both wars. Other World War II Monument Projects of the Commission. Names and particulars of 4,596 Americans who, in or above the waters off the east coasts of North and South America, gave their lives in the service of their country. are to be inscribed on a memorial to be erected at New York. Similarly, the names and particulars of those 412 Americans who gave their lives off the west coasts of the Americas will be recorded at a memorial to be erected at San Francisco. Although the national cemetery at Honolulu is maintained by the Department of the Army, the American Battle Monuments Commission, by agreement with the Secretary of the Army, will erect a memorial therein, similar in object to those built in the other oversea cemeteries. Buried at the cemetery are 13,510 dead of World War II and 1,200 who died in the Korean operations; the memorial will record 18,106 missing of World War II and 8,000 missing in Korea. The memorial will also embody the customary chapel and maps. MEMBERSHIP OF THE AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENTS COMMISSION. The present membership is as followsGeorge C. Marshall, Chairman Adm. Thomas C. Kinkaid, U.S. Navy, Ret'd., Gen. Alexander A. Vandegrift, U.S.M.C., Ret'd. Hon. Charles E. Potter, U.S. Senator from Michigan Hon. John Phillips, former Member of Congress from California Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Gen. Carl Spaatz, U.S.A.F., Ret'd. Hon. Forest A. Harness, former Senate Master at Arms and Member of Congress from Indiana Maj. Gen. Thomas North, Secretary |