American Overseas Memorial Day Association - Belgium

The American Overseas Memorial Day Association of Belgium, 1923-2003:
80 Years of Honoring America's Fallen from the Two World Wars

Preface

When Jim Begg, the current President of the American Overseas Memorial Day Association of Belgium, asked me several years ago to help the organization by researching and writing its history, I must confess that I knew very little of the work of AOMDA-Belgium. In my capacity as a volunteer Boy Scout leader I had attended some of the Memorial Day ceremonies at the cemeteries together with my Scouts, but I had no idea of all the work that lay behind these planning, preparation and conduct of these ceremonies, and I also was not aware that such ceremonies had been going on for many, many decades. Through participation in the ceremonies at all three cemeteries, meetings with key officials of AOMDA-Belgium, and discussions with present and former superintendents of the three cemeteries, I soon gained a strong sense of the organization's current mission and accomplishments, but tracing its early roots was much more difficult. AOMDA is an association made up of volunteers, with no permanent building to house its paperwork, so the organization itself has no early records. I have thus had to piece together many small bits of information from cemetery records, the National Archives, local archives in Belgium and old newspapers in order to determine just when Memorial Day began to be celebrated in Belgium and when the American Overseas Memorial Day Association of Belgium was founded to assist and promote these ceremonies. Thanks to this research I believe that we can now accurately date the founding of AOMDA-Belgium. In the past 1919 had been mentioned as a possible founding date, but this is actually too early, as there were not even any Memorial Day ceremonies at that time. The American Overseas Memorial Day Association was established in Paris in 1920 to support Memorial Day ceremonies at the six American cemeteries in France, and three years later a separate Belgian Branch of the AOMDA came into existence to conduct and support Memorial Day ceremonies at the one cemetery in Belgium at that time, Flanders Field. So this history commemorates eight decades of service by AOMDA-Belgium since its founding in 1923.

I would like to thank all those who provided invaluable assistance to this history by sharing their memories and photos, including Jim Begg and current AOMDA Executive Committee members Alan Philips, Eric Osterweil, Jerry Sheridan, and Jonathan Kapstein; past AOMDA Presidents Joep van Dierendonck, Dick de Bono, and Michael Bonsignore; current and former Superintendents and Assistant Superintendents and Associate Superintendents of the Flanders Field, Henri Chapelle and Ardennes Cemeteries, including Francis Duffy, Horace Thomas, Gerald Aresenault, Hans Hooker, Frank Berloth, William Matthys, Chris Sims, and David Bedford; Russell Porter and Richard Vasquez, Co-Presidents of AOMDA France; Ferdinand Dessente for his highly informative book Les Cimetières militaires de Neuville-en-Condroz, Dr. J.-P. Deweer of Oudenaarde for his book De Slag aan de Schelde 1918: Het VIe Franse leger en de 91st en 37th Div. van de "American Expeditionary Forces"; and last but certainly not least, Sandrin Coorevits, archivist of the City of Waregem, who has provided invaluable documents and photos from the city's archives, shedding much light on the earliest years of AOMDA's history.

Memorial Day 2003
Revised edition, Memorial Day 2004
Dr. Gregory W. Pedlow
Chief, Historical Office
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe

A Brief History of Memorial Day

Memorial Day's origins go back to the American Civil War. After four years of fighting and hundreds of thousands of dead on both sides, it was natural for friends, relatives and comrades of the fallen soldiers to pay their respects to their graves, often by placing flowers on them. This was the origin of "Decoration Day" to decorate the graves of the soldiers of both sides from the Civil War. The exact origins of this custom will never be known with certainty, for there are a number of places with good claims to be the originators of Decoration Day, which later became Memorial Day. One very likely candidate is Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, near the town of State College (home of Penn State University). In October 1864 Emma Hunter and Sophie Keller went to the local cemetery to place flowers on the grave of Emma Hunter's father, Reuben Hunter, a surgeon in the Union Army. There they met Elizabeth Myers, who was placing flowers on the grave of her son, who had been killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. The three women then discussed the possibility of carrying out this activity on a much wider scale, and the idea spread throughout the town. The following year, 1865, saw large numbers of Boalsburg residents showing up at the cemetery to decorate every grave with flags and flowers.(1)

Another strong candidate for the title of originator of Memorial Day is Columbus, Missouri, where four local women began caring for the graves of soldiers in the Friendship Cemetery a year before the three Boalsburg women met. Then on 25 April 1866 the Columbus women decided to make the decoration of soldiers' graves an annual event and led a ceremony at the graveyard, during which not only Confederate graves were decorated but also the graves of 40 Union soldiers buried there. A local newspaper wrote about the ceremony, the story was picked up by the New York Herald Tribune, whose editor Horace Greeley wrote a glowing tribute to the work of the Columbus women, and the poet Francis Finch was inspired to write a very popular poem with the title "The Blue and the Gray", which appeared in the September 1867 edition of the Atlantic Monthly. The poem closed with the words:

Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the Judgement Day;
Under the blossoms, the blue,
Under the garlands, the gray. (2)

Shortly before the Columbus ceremony, three Civil War veterans picked wildflowers and placed them on some graves in Carbondale, Illinois. They then met with town leaders and suggested a more formal ceremony on the following Sunday, 29 April 1866. The idea was immediately approved, and on the day the town's population showed up for a parade, barbecue, speeches, prayers and the decoration of 20 graves in Woodlawn Cemetery. One of the speakers was Congressman John A Logan from the nearby town of Murphysboro. Logan had served as a general during the Civil War and was very impressed with the Carbondale ceremony. Two years later, after Logan had become the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), an association of Union veterans, he issued General Order Number 11, which stated:

The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.

That same year saw the first Decoration Day ceremony at the new Arlington National Cemetery.

Yet another candidate for the title of originator of Memorial Day is Charleston, South Carolina, where in April 1865 black residents - including many former slaves - began decorating the graves of 200 Union soldiers who had died in a prisoner of war camp there. After landscaping the graves and building a 10-foot high enclosure around the site, 10,000 people (mainly blacks plus some white abolitionists) celebrated the completion of the work on 1 May 1865. Similarly, on 12 March 1866 a Columbus, Georgia newspaper printed a letter from a local woman appealing for women to decorate soldiers' graves with flowers on 26 April, the anniversary of the surrender of General Johnston. And on 30 May 1866 the mayor and school superintendent of Richmond, Virginia, planned and carried out a program to decorate the graves of Union soldiers who had died in the nearby Confederate prison on Belle Island in the James River.

Last but certainly not least is the town officially recognized by the United States Congress as the "birthplace of Memorial Day." During the summer of 1865 in the small town of Waterloo, New York, a pharmacist named Henry C. Welles suggested that a formal, patriotic ceremony should be held to commemorate the fallen of the Civil War. Together with war hero General John B. Murray he formed a committee to plan such a ceremony, and on 5 May 1866 the town's flags were hung at half staff, and a band led a procession of veterans and townspeople to three cemeteries for the decoration of graves. The ceremony was repeated on 5 May 1867 and then in 1868 the date was changed to 30 May in compliance with General Logan's GAR declaration. In 1966 in commemoration of the 100th anniversary celebration in Waterloo, Congress passed a resolution "in recognition of the patriotic tradition set in motion 100 years ago" and officially declared Waterloo to be founding town for Memorial Day.


Henry C. Welles	Waterloo, New York, in 1866	Gen. John B. Murray

With Decoration Day ceremonies becoming widespread throughout the country during the late 1860s, the GAR began calling for 30 May to be set aside as a legal holiday. New York was the first state to do so in 1873. It was at this time that the name changed from Decoration Day to Memorial Day. Other states followed suit, but not all of them chose 30 May as the day on which to honor the dead of the Civil War. Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida selected 26 April, the anniversary of General Johnston's surrender in 1865, North and South Carolina chose 10 May, Louisiana and Tennessee selected 3 June, the birthdate of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, while Texas celebrated Tennessee confederate Heroes Day on 19 January. In the North, the GAR was in charge of Memorial Day ceremonies, but after World War I the holiday was changed from being a day to honor the Civil War dead to one honoring the dead of all American wars, and the newly-founded American Legion took charge of the ceremonies. In recent decades the date of the celebration was changed from 30 May to the fourth Monday in May.

Fighting by U.S. Forces in Belgium during World War I

The role of the U.S. divisions which fought on Belgian soil during the First World War is not well known because unlike most American divisions fighting in Europe at this time, they were not fighting as part of a purely American force in its own American sector but had been attached to Allied armies to help the exhausted British and French stop the final German offensive in the late spring and summer of 1918 and then stage a major counteroffensive in the autumn of 1918 to push the Germans out of France and Belgium. Thus these divisions were not part of the famous St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne Offensives carried out in the autumn of 1918 by the 2nd and 1st US Armies respectively under the command of General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, Commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Europe.

The first American divisions to see combat in Belgium were two divisions attached to the British Second Army: the 27th and 30th Divisions. The 27th Division was known as the "New York Division" because it had been formed in September 1917 out of troops from the New York National Guard. The division was commanded by Maj. Gen. John F. O'Ryan. The 30th Division was known as the "Old Hickory Division" in honor of President Andrew Jackson from Tennessee, and it was formed in August 1917 from soldiers of the North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee National Guard. Its commander was Maj. Gen. Edward M. Lewis. The 30th Division landed in France in March 1918, while the 27th Division followed in May 1918. The two divisions received further training in trench warfare from experienced British soldiers during the late spring and early summer of 1918 and then saw their first action against the Germans in fighting around Ypres (Ieper) from 5 July through 7 September 1918. During this combat the 27th Division lost 250 soldiers killed and 1086 wounded. Eighty-two of the fallen are buried at Flanders Field American Cemetery and another twenty-one are honored on the Wall of Missing. One other soldier from this division is buried in the Lijssenthoek British Military Cemetery in Poperinge, where a major British field hospital was located. During the same period the 30th Division lost 156 men killed and 621 wounded. Twenty-four are buried in Flanders Field Cemetery and another four are listed on the Wall of Missing. One additional 30th Division soldier is buried at the Lijssenthoek British Military Cemetery in Poperinge.(3)

Two other American divisions fought in Belgium during the next major Allied offensive there, which began on 28 September 1918 and was originally conducted by the Belgian Army, the British Second Army, two French Army Corps (the VIII and XXXIV), and the French Second Cavalry Corps. The overall commander of this operation by the "Flanders Group of Armies" was His Majesty King Albert of the Belgians.(4) While the Allies were successful in pushing the Germans back through the marshy terrain, casualties were high and the attackers soon became worn down. The Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, therefore asked the Americans to supply two divisions to assist the French forces participating in this offensive.(5) The two American divisions brought in as reinforcements for the French were the 37th and 91st Divisions. The 37th "Buckeye" Division was composed of National Guardsmen from Ohio, and it was commanded by Maj. Gen. Charles S. Farnsworth. The 91st "Wild West" Division was the only American division in Belgium not formed from National Guard personnel. Instead it was a "National Army" division made up of volunteers and draftees from the states of California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming (all of which explains where the division's nickname came from). The division commander was Maj. Gen. William H. Johnston.(6)

On 25 October 1918 the two divisions moved into position for the renewal of the offensive, which was scheduled to begin on 31 October. At 0525 hours that morning, the attack began. The 37th Division seized the important Cruyshautem Ridge on the first day, while the 91st Division, advancing against intense fire, seized the strongly wooded area in its front and also assisted in the final liberation of the city of Waregem. Both divisions moved forward rapidly to the Schelde (Escaut) River on the following day in pursuit of the enemy.    The 37th staged a successful crossing of the Schelde on 2-3 November and was then relieved by French forces on the following day. The 91st occupied Oudenaarde on 2 November and the division was relieved on the 3rd by a French unit. Both divisions re-entered the line for the general attack of the French Sixth Army on 10 November. The 37th Division was directed to relieve two French divisions east of the Schelde on the morning of the 10th, but these division had been unable to cross the river and were therefore relieved on the west bank. Despite heavy losses, the 37th succeeded in again crossing the river and moved forward on the following day, advancing 21/2 miles eastward. The 91st Division was more fortunate, meeting only slight opposition on the 10th and none on the morning of the 11th, at which time it reached a line east of Boucle-Saint-Blaise. At this point the Armistice signed by the Germans took effect, and the First World War ended.(7)

During its participation in this final Allied offensive, the 37th Division lost 401 men killed and 1247 wounded. One hundred forty-two of the division's soldiers are buried at Flanders Field and another ten are listed on the Wall of Missing.   The 91st Division lost 293 killed and 740 wounded. Eight-seven soldiers are buried in Flanders Field Cemetery and one additional soldier is listed on the Wall of Missing.

The Creation of Flanders Field American Cemetery

When the First World War ended in November 1918, the 77,433 American dead were found in more than 1836 burial sites, many with just a single or small numbers of burials. While in previous overseas wars the dead had been left buried with their comrades close to where they had fallen in battle, there was now a call to bring home the dead. As a result, for the first time the United States Government offered the families of the fallen soldiers the possibility to have their loved ones brought back to the United States at government expense. Approximately 60 percent of the families chose repatriation, and the remaining dead - including both identified and unknown soldiers - were to be concentrated in large temporary cemeteries on the battlefields near where they fell.

In Belgium the graves of American soldiers were still to be found in widely separated locations, often in local graveyards close to where the soldiers had fallen in battle.   This led the Belgian administrative district (Arrondissement) in Kortrijk (Courtrai) to write to the Burgomaster of Waregem on 9 January 1919 suggesting that a site be found to consolidate the graves of foreign soldiers who had fallen in Belgium in a single location.(8) On 22 May 1919 the Burgomaster decided that "a certain parcel of land (located on the left of the road leading from Waregem to Wortegem) belonging to Mademoiselle Delespaul has been judged to be the most suitable to serve as a cemetery for the American soldiers fallen for their country."(9)   Eight days later the Burgomaster informed Lieutenant Felter, Commander of Group 3, Graves Registration Service Unit 302, that that this parcel of land was available for use as a cemetery for American soldiers who had fallen in Flanders. Burials at Waregem began soon afterward, although the Belgian government did not actually take ownership of the land from Mademoiselle Delespaul until a formal confiscation decree was issued on 5 October 1921. At this time the Belgian government granted use of the site in perpetuity to the United States without any charge or taxation as an expression of gratitude to the United States for its role in the liberation of Belgium.(10)

Temporary U.S. Grave Markers next to older Belgian markers in a local graveyard

Originally known as American Cemetery 1252, the cemetery at Waregem soon became known officially as Flanders Field American Cemetery. This name was inspired by the famous poem "In Flanders Fields" by the Canadian Lt. Col. John D. McCrae. He wrote this poem outside an aid station near Ypres, Belgium, during a lull in the fighting in April 1915. It is one of the most famous poems to come out of World War I:

In Flanders Field
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row
That ark our place, and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead, short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields

Colonel McRae died of pneumonia in Northern France on 28 January 1918, but his poem went on to inspire Miss Moina Michael to start the Flanders Field Memorial Poppy drive, which has raised millions of dollars for veterans and their families.

The First Memorial Day Ceremonies in Belgium, 1920-1922

The 30th of May 1919, the first Memorial Day after the end of World War I, does not seem to have been marked in any special way in Belgium. Flanders Field Cemetery did not yet exist - the city had just selected the site for the new American Cemetery eight days earlier - and the graves of American soldiers in Belgium were still to be found in widely separated locations, often in local graveyards close to where the soldiers fell in battle. Thus there was not yet a single focus for commemorating all of America's war dead. But the creation of the American Cemetery at Waregem in mid-1919 provided such a focal point, and on 2 November 1919, on the Belgian religious holiday of All Saints Day, a public ceremony took place in the new cemetery. A photo shows a handful of American soldiers together with a number of the city's inhabitants in front of the new, wooden grave markers.

All Saints Day at Waregem Cemetery, 2 November 1919

The first public Memorial Day Ceremony in Belgium was held on Sunday, 30 May 1920, at Flanders Field Cemetery in Waregem. This first ceremony was a joint effort between the City of Waregem and the U.S. Army's Graves Registration Service, which at that time still administered Flanders Field Cemetery. On 28 May 1920 Burgomaster Sean Bouckaert sent out public invitations to the ceremony which read:

On the occasion of Memorial Day, organized by the American Army and of which representatives of allied armies will be present, you are hereby invited to participate with flags on Sunday, 30 May 1020.

Groups will assemble at the station at 1300 hours and will proceed from there to the American Cemetery.

We are counting on your presence out of respect and loyalty to pay tribute to the American Army and their fallen comrades who rest here.(11)

The senior United States representative at the ceremony was Ambassador Henry P. Fletcher. Among the senior officials accompanying him was Colonel John R. Thomas, Jr., U.S. Military Attaché at the Embassy in Brussels. Afterward, on 1 June 1920, Colonel Thomas sent a report to the Director of Military Intelligence in Washington, DC, with a detailed description of the day's events:

1. On the 30th of May I accompanied the American Ambassador to the American Cemetery at Waeregem, Belgium, where Memorial Day Services were conducted.

2. The local Burgomaster, in connection with the Graves Registration Service, had arranged a program, which included local societies, hundreds of school children, who carried flowers, two bands, and representatives of the Belgian Army.

3. Upon arrival at the cemetery it was found that each grave had been decorated with a growing plant. This I learned yesterday had been done upon the personal instance of his Majesty, the King of the Belgians, he having ordered that the grave of every American soldier in Belgium be so decorated.

4. It is suggested that an acknowledgement by the proper authorities of this graceful act would be most appropriate.(12)

Unfortunately no photos of this first Memorial Day Ceremony have been located, but it is interesting to note that several key features of all subsequent Memorial Day Ceremonies at Flanders Field Cemetery were already present at the very first ceremony. These features include the participation of numerous local societies, bands, and most of all, the involvement of local schoolchildren carrying flowers to decorate the graves.

In 1921 the United States began repatriating the bodies of soldiers buried in Belgium. The decision on whether or not a soldier's body should be returned to the United States or remain together with his comrades close to where he died lay entirely with his family. There were no financial considerations involved - it was not a case of richer families bringing their soldier's bodies home while poorer families had to leave them overseas - because the U.S. government paid all the costs of repatriating the bodies. The majority of families chose repatriation. Of the 1043 American soldiers killed in Belgium, only 375 were left buried there, mainly at Waregem Cemetery, including 21 unknown soldiers, but also in the Lijssenthoeck British Military Cemetery where the dead from the nearby Casualty Clearing Station had been buried. Three Americans are buried there, including two brothers.(13)

As a result of the on-going repatriation effort, the American cemeteries in Europe were literally in a state of upheaval in 1921, so the Memorial Day activities that year focused on the port of Antwerp, where on 30 May the Belgian Minister of National Defense, M. Albert Devèze, made a speech over the bodies of American soldiers awaiting shipment back to the United States. His eloquent words which have been lying forgotten in the archives for the past eight decades deserve to be repeated:

What words, Gentlemen, can express the emotion that moves us

They were young, strong, enthusiastic and brave. They were fond of life, action and struggle, of honest ennobling labour that opens the ways of human destiny. But they loved still more their Motherland; they loved Justice, Liberty, Ideals without which life were worthless.

They were told that on the other side of the world, over the immense ocean, an unprecedented tragedy was being enacted in blood and tears; that, contrary to all Justice, a small people was being enslaved; that all the nations were trembling for their liberty; that barbarians were trampling down Civilization as in the time of Attila; that henceforth there was no country that was not imperiled.

And so at once they gave themselves; they took up arms; they sailed away, not once thinking that their sublime deed would ever receive any other reward than that of the triumph of Right.

By their valour they earned that reward; they paid for it with their heroic sacrifice. But is not the only one they deserved. And so, in a sentiment of deep respect and unlimited gratitude, I come to present the homage of the Belgian nation, of the Army, and of the government.

We mourn for these glorious dead as thought they were our own; their names are as dear to us as those of our own martyrs; their memory will live in our hearts, and in the hearts of our children, to whom we shall tell how these warrior shed their blood with ours for the honour of the Belgian people and for the defense of their homes.

This, in a common mourning, the close union of the two nations, already brought close together by so much instinctive sympathy and the mingling of so many memories, is affirmed and sealed. Belgium will never forget that the United States, even before entering the war, were in the darkest hours the protectors and the benefactors of our distressed population; that the presence of their Ambassador in Brussels during the occupation saved our great cities from the fate that would have been theirs under the invader's savage cruelty; and that American foodstuffs, lavished with unexampled and unlimited generosity, palliated - especially for the weak, the poor, the aged, the sick, and the children - all the sufferings, privations and miseries brought on by the war. But is also knows the powerful help given on battlefields by the American legions, whose exploits consecrated the marvelous bravery and discipline of their race, as the relief work had already consecrated its brotherly kindness, and its simple and loyal good will.

Let them go back now, lying side by side in the folds of the Star Spangled Banner, toward the land where they were born, where they will be again with the dear ones whom they left behind - the dear ones who anxiously await them, and who will adorn their graves with flower! Their task is accomplished. Their Motherland, which they loved even unto death, they have made greater; they have enlarged its patrimony of glory and gained for it imperishable titles to the gratitude of the world. We, who survive and owe everything to those who fell, piously bend over them in our grief and love, and watch over their last sleep.(14)

The following year - 1922 - Memorial Day was celebrated in Brussels by a service held at the American Embassy, with Ambassador Fletcher, General Johnson, Commander of the Army of the Rhine, and other senior officers and officials attending. There does not seem to have been a large ceremony held at Flanders Field Cemetery that year, but the newspaper Le Soir reported that "the graves of American soldiers buried in Belgium were decorated with flowers by the Graves Registration Service."(15)

Memorial Day Ceremony at Flanders Field, Probably in 1922(16)

As part of the Belgians' strong support for the celebration of Memorial Day, King Albert of the Belgians sent a Memorial Day message to President Warren G. Harding:

Upon the anniversary of Decoration Day, I am anxious that the people of the United States be assured anew of that lively feeling of gratitude which Belgium entertains for the American Army and Navy and for her heroes fallen on the field of battles, whose graves will be adorned with flowers on May 30th. I sent to your Excellency the expression of the admiration of the Belgian people for your noble country and the expression of my sincere friendship.(17)

As we can see, the idea of marking Memorial Day in some fashion had already taken root among the American community in Belgium by 1922, but the focus was not yet on the graves of the fallen at Flanders Field Cemetery. What was needed was a new organization, dedicated to ensuring that Memorial Day celebrations would take place at the most appropriate spot and that all Americans living in Belgium would be encouraged to participate.

Formation of the American Overseas Memorial Day Association in France and Belgium

At the end of World War I the American presence in Europe increased tremendously. In addition to the military personnel still on occupation duty in Germany, American businessmen, diplomats, and relief agency workers all came to the major cities of Europe. As expatriates in foreign surroundings, they tended to seek each other out, which soon led to the formation of "American Clubs" in various European cities. The oldest of these clubs, the American Club of Paris, has a much longer history, however. It dates back to the days of Benjamin Franklin's service as Ambassador to France during the American Revolution. Belgium's American Clubs are both post-World War I creations. In 1919 small groups of Americans in Brussels and Antwerp began meeting frequently for lunch and eventually decided to create more formal organizations. As a result, the American Club of Antwerp came into existence in 1920, followed by the American Club of Brussels in early 1921.(18)

The members of the American Clubs enjoyed getting together to mark important American holidays - Independence Day, Election Day, Thanksgiving - and the two clubs in Belgium gradually began to hold occasional joint functions, in particular the annual Fourth of July celebration featuring a friendly baseball game between the two clubs, which began in 1925. There is one other area in which I am certain that the American Clubs played a very important role, but unfortunately one which is not well documented, and that is in the creation of societies to promote the celebration of Memorial Day at the burial places of American soldiers in Europe. In Paris a group of Americans came together in 1920 to form the American Overseas Memorial Day Association, and I have been told by long-standing current members of AOMDA France and the American Club of Paris that the two organizations have very close ties that go back to the very beginnings of AOMDA. Several other American organizations also assisted in the creation of AOMDA in France: the American Women's Group of Paris, the American Hospital of Paris, and the American Legion, which was founded in Paris after the end of World War I and still has its Post #1 there.(19)

The successful work of AOMDA France in celebrating Memorial Day at military cemeteries in France led to a desire among the Americans living in Belgium to create a similar organization. Thus was born the Belgian Branch of the American Overseas Memorial Day Association. The first activities of the new society came on Memorial Day 1923. As in the past, there was a gathering of Americans in Brussels, this time at the church of the Methodist Episcopal Mission, 5 rue des Champ de Mars. The Hon. H. H. Morgan, American Consul-General, presided over the ceremony. To mark Memorial Day a flagstaff was erected outside the church and a wreath was deposited at the base of the staff. The U.S. flag was then raised, and all the participants sang the National Anthem. But what was new in 1923 was a large gathering of Americans at Flanders Field Cemetery. The Anglo-Belgian Times reported afterward, "There was a representative gathering of Americans, on Wednesday last [30 May], at the memorial service held at the church of the Methodist Episcopal Mission, 5 rue des Champ de Mars.... On the same day a delegation of Americans from Brussels and Antwerp visited the Cemetery at Waereghem, where 365 Americans are buried, and deposited a wreath on each grave on behalf of the Brussels and Antwerp American Colonies."(20) On the following Sunday, 3 June 1923, there was an even larger gathering at Waregem Cemetery, this time at a ceremony involving both Belgians and Americans. The Burgomaster issued invitations to the ceremony, and the photos taken that day show a large crowd present.(21)

First AOMDA-sponsored Memorial Day Service at Waregem, 3 June 1923

It is important to note that the Anglo-Belgian Times article speaks of participation by both the Brussels and the Antwerp American colonies. This was not an activity being carried out by just one of the clubs in its own city, like the previous celebrations in Brussels; this was a joint activity for all Americans in Belgium. For this reason, a new organization was needed, which is why members of both American Clubs joined the new Belgian Branch of AOMDA and also enthusiastically supported its work. A manuscript history of the American Club of Brussels prepared in the late 1920s reports that in 1923 "the Clubs in Brussels and Antwerp began to render definite assistance to the Overseas Memorial Day Association in the preparation of the proper observance of Memorial Day at the American Cemetery at Waereghem." In Brussels this support took the form of an effort to ensure for perpetuity the financial solidarity of the new organization and its Memorial Day Ceremonies at Flanders Field Cemetery. Thus the American Club of Brussels "undertook for the benefit of the Overseas Memorial Day Association the collection of $10 from each American resident in Brussels and vicinity, to be placed in a permanent fund, the income from which would be employed annual for the appropriate decoration of the 367 graves of American soldiers located in Belgium."(22)

The first President of the Belgian Branch of AOMDA was Clinton E. MacEachran, U.S. Consul in Ghent. His service as President was not connected in any way with his official duties as Consul; instead he was elected to this post by his fellow members of AOMDA.(23) Milton M. Brown of Antwerp served as the organization's Treasurer. The earliest surviving letter from MacEachran in his capacity as President of AOMDA is shown below.

Letter from MacEachran to the Burgomaster of Waregem, 23 April 1926

Unfortunately there are no surviving records of the first years of AOMDA-Belgium's activities. But the organization obviously threw itself into the work of organizing the Memorial Day Ceremony in 1923 and encouraging a large turn-out of Americans at the ceremony in order to match the efforts of the city of Waregem to have many local inhabitants participate. The photographs taken that day of the large crowds present at Flanders Field Cemetery bear witness to the success of both Americans and Belgians in ensuring heavy participation in the ceremony.

The Large Belgian-American Crowd at the Memorial Day Service on 5 June 1923 at Flanders Field American Cemetery

Many Belgian Schoolchildren Attended the Ceremony

Additional View of the Crowd at Memorial Day 1923

In the years that followed, AOMDA-Belgium continued to organize the overall annual ceremony and promote American attendance at it, while also providing financial assistance to the city of Waregem to help it meet the extra expenses of a large public ceremony.(24) By the mid-1930s the association had more than a decade of experience in supporting and conducting the Memorial Day ceremonies, and the funding of these activities had also been placed on a firm basis, as can be seen in the letter sent out on 1 May 1937 by the Belgian Branch of AOMDA to "All Americans in Belgium".

One of AOMDA's Memorial Day Services at Flanders Field in the 1930s

This letter is very informative, as it gives a brief overview of the history and purpose of American Overseas Memorial Day Association, saying it was "founded in 1920 for the purpose of the decoration of American soldiers' graves in France, Belgium and England and for directing the ceremonies at the Cemeteries on Memorial Day." The letter adds that "a permanent organization of the Belgian Branch of the Association has been elected." It should be noted that the founding date of 1920 refers to the parent organization in Paris, not the newer Belgian Branch. It is also interesting to note that the letter makes reference to American soldiers' graves in France, Belgium and England, which makes me wonder if there may have also been a British or English Branch of AOMDA at one time. I have never heard of an AOMDA England or Britain, but this does not rule out the possibility that such a branch may have existed there during the interwar period. The letter also describes the membership of the Belgian Branch of AOMDA as being - "all Americans and their families residing in Belgium"- and goes on to describe the financial arrangements that had been made to cover the costs of the association's activities: "There is no obligation on the part of any member for subscriptions for the work of decorating the graves as a fund has been collected in Europe and in the United States, the income from which will prove adequate for the needs of the association." AOMDA-Belgium was obviously in good financial shape at that time and did not need to conduct fund-raising drives to support its activities.

As can be seen in the above letter, AOMDA-Belgium was even providing free bus transportation for Americans in Brussels, Antwerp, and Ghent to attend the Memorial Day Ceremony at Waregem. The association's Executive Committee also welcomed the visiting Allied Military Attachés and other dignities at the entrance of the Caretaker's residence.(25)

Entry Ticket for the 1937 Memorial Day Ceremony

Flanders Field Cemetery Between the Wars

In 1923 an event took place in Washington, DC, that was to have a major impact on Flanders Field Cemetery and all the other US military cemeteries overseas. Concerned that there were no uniform standards for the many monuments and markers created by US units before they left Europe and that these markers had been erected on land not owned by the units and without provision for future maintenance and also wishing to consolidate the more than 1700 burial sites - many with just a single of small numbers of burials - for the 77,433 American dead from World War I, the United States Congress passed a law creating the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). It mission was to oversee the construction and maintenance of permanent American cemeteries and monuments

The first task for the ABMC was to erect a nonsectarian chapel in each of the eight burial grounds on foreign soil established by the War Department and landscape each of the cemeteries. There was to be no uniform design for all the cemeteries; instead each would have its own distinctive layout and chapel building. Leading architects from across the country were invited to submit designs for the cemeteries and their unique chapels, which were judged by the ABMC's Commission of Fine Arts. On 14 October 1926, after a long and exhaustive design competition, the Commission selected the entry of architect Dr. Paul P. Cret of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the new cemetery in Belgium.

Flanders Field American Cemetery as laid out by Architect Dr. Paul P. Cret

Early Color Photograph of Flanders Field Cemetery

Entrance to Flanders Field Cemetery

Grave markers at Flanders Field Cemetery

Memorial Day 1927 was probably the most famous ceremony ever held at Flanders Field American Cemetery. Just nine days earlier, American aviator Charles Lindberg had landed in Paris after 331/2 hours of non-stop flying in his single-engine aircraft, thus becoming the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. After days of being feted in Paris, Lindberg accepted an invitation from the American Club of Brussels to come to that city. Arriving on the afternoon of Saturday, 28 May 1929, Lindberg received a hero's welcome at the airfield and then had an audience with King Albert, who presented him with a high decoration. That evening Lindbergh was guest of honor at a banquet at the Concert Noble in Brussels, with two hundred invited guests headed by the Duke of Brabant, Crown Prince Leopold. Here Lindbergh shyly recounted the story of his epic crossing, always using the first person plural - in this case the other person in his "we" references was his famous aircraft, the "Spirit of St. Louis." More ceremonies followed on Sunday, and then on Monday Lindberg took off for London but did not take the most direct route to his destination; instead he added a detour that would take him over Waregem. It was 30 May 1927, the actual date of Memorial Day in the United States, and even though the official Memorial Day ceremony at Flanders Field had already taken place the previous day in keeping with the custom of holding the ceremony on a Sunday, a large crowd of Belgians and Americans turned out to commemorate Memorial Day again, this time on the actual date, and also to see the famous flyer passing overhead. Paying careful attention to his timing, Lindberg flew over the cemetery and dropped a bouquet of flowers on the graves, which was his own personal mark of respect to the fallen at Flanders Field. The large Belgian-American crowd applauded as Lindberg's bouquet fell to the ground.(26)

Charles Lindbergh's famous 1927 fly-over at Waregem. Note the bouquet falling to theground in the left center of the photograph as the Spirit of St. Louis continues toward London.

The following year saw another prominent attendee at the Memorial Day ceremony at Flanders Field Cemetery. General of the Armies John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I and now head of the American Battlefield Monuments Commission, took part in the ceremony. He was also a guest speaker at the ceremonies in 1929, 1930 and 1932.(27)

In 1930 the cornerstone was laid for the chapel at Flanders Field. The exact completion date is not known, but the chapel was already in existence by 1935 because on 20 April 1935 a bolt of lightning struck the chapel and knocked off a corner of the border around the top of the monument. The official dedication of the cemetery and chapel came at a ceremony held on 8 August 1937.(28)

The New Chapel at Flanders Field Cemetery

1930s Photograph of the Chapel at Flanders Field Cemetery

Another initiative of General Pershing and the ABMC was government sponsorship of visits by Gold Star Mothers. During the war families with sons in the armed forces displayed a blue star flag, and if a son was killed, the star was changed to a gold star, which led to the term "Gold Star Mother" to denote the mother of a soldier who died in the war. After the war ended and families were offered the choice between bring their dead sons home or leaving them together with their comrades in new cemeteries in Europe, the majority of families chose to have the remains repatriated but approximately 33,000 families opted for leaving the bodies of their loved ones buried in Europe. During the 1920s many families began to ask for government assistance for them to visit these graves, and General Pershing became a strong supporter of the idea, which was finally adopted by Congress in 1929 and begun in the following year. The Gold Star Mother (and also some Gold Star Widow) trips to Europe at government expense were known as pilgrimages, and between 1930 and 1934 6,693 women visited the graves of their loved ones in Europe and the battlefields on which they fought. General Pershing personally escorted many of these groups. While the majority of the Gold Star Mother Pilgrimages went to the large cemeteries in France, some visited Flanders Field.(29)

Mrs. Katie Gusler visiting the grave of her son, Sergeant Paul Gusler (see photo on right) of the 145th Infantry Regiment, 37th Division, at Flanders Field American Cemetery on 2 July 1930

The pilgrimage of Mrs. Katie Gusler to Flanders Field in the summer of 1930 is typical of that of many Gold Star Mothers. She left her home in New Jersey on 19 June 1930, took a ship from New York City to Cherbourg, France, on the 21st of June, arriving on the 29th. Her group was then shown some of the sights of Paris, including the Arc de Triomphe, before leaving for Belgium on 1 July 1930. She then was able to visit her son's grave in Flanders Field American Cemetery from 2-4 July before returning to Paris on the 5th, where the ABMC provided more opportunities for sightseeing. On 11 July she left for the United States and was back in her house 9 days later. The whole trip had taken one month, with all expenses paid by the U.S. Government.(30)

Throughout this period the American Cemetery at Flanders Field enjoyed the full support of the Belgian population and government. Thus when a Belgian sought to open a café across from Flanders Field American Cemetery, the Belgian authorities quickly dealt with the threat to the quiet and peaceful surroundings of the cemetery by expropriating the property in question.

Flanders Field Cemetery During World War II

The outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939 initially had no impact on Flanders Field Cemetery. American was a neutral nation, and there was no fighting in France or Belgium at this time, as Germany turned its attention toward the conquest of Poland. The relative peace and quiet on the "Western Front" continued into the spring of 1940 in a period known as the "Phony War" because it did not seem like a war at all. But the tranquility was shattered on 10 May 1940, when German troops invaded France and Belgium and staged a rapid advance with their motorized formations. As the Germans approached Waregem, the Superintendent of Flanders Field Cemetery, Mr. Moses, left the cemetery and headed for the ABMC headquarters in Paris but was unable to do so, due to the rapid German advance. He therefore returned to duty at Waregem on 12 June. Soon afterward he wrote to ABMC headquarters in Washington to report that on "Thursday 23 May. German troops coming into Waregem stopped at the cemetery. Some of the soldiers went through the house, throwing everything out on the floors. While this was going on one of the soldiers took down the flag and tore it up and took it away with him. Two other soldiers went into the store-room and took away the two bicycles belonging to the two workmen."(31)

As the United States was still a neutral country in 1940, the ABMC employees at the cemeteries were initially allowed to continue their work. Thus Major Holle was still writing letters to General Pershing about events in the cemetery in the summer of 1940. He noted that the "only deliberate aggression at Waregem" occurred when "a German soldier lowered the cemetery flag, tore it up, and carried the pieces away."(32) In October 1940 the Germans began restricting the work of the ABMC. Henceforth ABMC Headquarters personnel in Paris were no longer authorized to travel to Belgium and the restricted zone of Northwestern and Northeastern France. By the spring of 1941 it was becoming clear that American personnel would have to leave Europe altogether. In May 1941 the senior Belgian employee at Flanders Field, Mr. Achiel Adams, became the Acting Superintendent. His salary was increased from 1200 francs per month to 1500 francs. In June 1941 all ABMC employees left Paris.

On 19 July 1941 responsibility for administering the cemetery and paying its personnel passed to the Belgian governmental organization responsible for Belgian military cemeteries - "Nos Tombés." The United States in turn sent funds to pay the salaries of the Belgian employees through the Swiss Legation, Division of Foreign Interests, Berlin. While under Belgian administration, the United States flag continued to fly at the cemetery until 8 December 1941, when Germany declared war on the United States following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.(33) Memorial Day ceremonies were now banned at Flanders Field.

In 1943 a small group of courageous Belgian quietly marked Memorial Day by posing for a photograph in front of the chapel at Flanders Field cemetery. The participants in this bold gesture were José Devos, Alfred Tavernier, Georges Van Hauwaert, Georges Bohez and Mrs. Bohez, and Joseph Versichele (numbered 1 though 6 respectively in the photograph below). It should be noted that Mr. Versichele had attended his first Memorial Day in 1927 and remembered Charles Lindbergh flying over the cemetery and dropping poppies. During the war he served in the Belgian Secret Army resisting the Germans but was arrested by the Gestapo in March 1944 and deported to a concentration camp in Germany. He survived and returned to Belgium on 1 May 1945. Prior to his death in 1996 he had attended 67 Memorial Day ceremonies. For a long time it was believed that this group of Belgians had actually conducted a secret Memorial Day ceremony in defiance of the German ban, but Mr. Versichele later admitted that there had not been an actual ceremony or wreath-laying. But in my opinion, even posing together for a photograph in the cemetery was not without danger in Nazi-occupied Belgium and thus deserves the highest respect.

Memorial Day 1943 at Flanders Field American Cemetery

Waregem and the surrounding area was liberated by British forces in September 1944, and the following months saw the first new burials at Flanders Field since the end of World War I. Twelve US airmen were buried in Plot A by British forces.(34) These bodies were later moved to new US World War II cemeteries in eastern Belgium so that Flanders Field would remain solely a resting place for the fallen of the First World War.

Soon after the liberation, the US Army reported on the condition of the World War I Cemeteries in France and Belgium. Under Flanders Field the report stated:

The cemetery, buildings, lawn, trees and shrubbery have been kept in excellent condition under adverse conditions by the Assistant Caretaker, M. Adams. The Germans came to the cemetery on numerous occasions, searched house, looking for SW radio. Made caretaker take down American flags, which they carried away. Staff paid regularly by Belgian ministry.(35)

Fighting by U.S. Forces in Belgium during World War II

Following their successful landings at Normany on 6 June 1944, Allied forces built up their strength and then broke out of the Normandy bridgehead in late July 1944. U.S. and British forces then advanced rapidly through France and entered Belgium at the beginning of September, as the shattered German forces fell back toward their own borders. At the beginning of September a large force of Germans was surrounded and destroyed in the Mons Pocket, and on 3 September British troops captured Brussels and then entered Antwerp the following day. Farther south, U.S. units liberated Liège, Luxembourg and eastern Belgium by 8 September. Patrols of the U.S. First Army crossed the German frontier in the Ardennes area on 11 September and then near the city of Aachen the following day. Some newspapers began to speculate that the war could be over by Christmas. But the Allied forces had begun to outrun their supplies and German resistance stiffened as they got closer to Germany and its border fortifications, so the Allied advance gradually ground to a halt after Operation Market Garden, a bold attempt to seize the Lower Rhine River crossings with airborne troops, failed to secure the famous "bridge too far" at Arnhem in late September.

Heavy fighting in the German city of Aachen occurred during October 1944, with the city finally falling to the U.S. First Army on 21 October. But the following month there was new and even more deadly fighting in the dense woods of the nearby Huertgen Forest.

Some American units that had been worn down during the heavy fighting of the autumn were sent to the quiet sector of the Ardennes Forest to rest and refit. But on 16 December 1944, this "quiet sector" became the scene of one of the most important American battles in Europe during the Second World War, the "Battle of the Bulge," which got its name after a surprise German offensive pushed a large bulge into the Allied lines. But with the 101st Airborne Division stubbornly holding on to the key road network of Bastogne despite being surrounded by the Germans and with other American divisions tenaciously holding the northern and southern flanks of the penetration, preventing the Germans from widening and deepening their breakthrough, the German offensive finally ran out of steam. Hitler had failed to achieve his objective of splitting the Allied armies apart and capturing the port of Antwerp.

The Allies now began pushing the Germans back, finally eliminating the bulge in early January 1945. Fighting then moved out of Belgium, as the Allies first cleared the west bank of the Rhine River in February and March and then crossed the river after seizing an undamaged bridge at Remagen on 7 March. Other crossings followed and U.S. forces soon encircled a huge mass of German troops in the Ruhr Pocket. The Allied advance into the heart of Germany continued, and victory came on 8 May 1945 with Germany's unconditional surrender.

Collecting and Identifying the American Dead of World War II:

Activities of the U.S. Army's Graves Registration Service in Belgium

Drawing on the experience of World War I, when many bodies had to be identified after the end of the war and more than 1,600 never could be identified, the US Army reconstituted the Graves Registration Service in February 1942. After the D-Day landings in June, Graves Registration operations moved to France and then Belgium. Specialized Graves Registration units moved close behind the front-line combat units to ensure that the identities of those killed in action were determined, either through identification tags (the so-called "dog tags" or other identification documents found on the bodies, or by interviewing surviving members of a unit. The Graves Registration units also recorded the locations of any gravesites so that the bodies could be recovered after the end of the fighting. Wherever possible, the bodies of those who had died were collected together in temporary cemeteries; these were often located near casualty clearing stations or military hospitals.

By the end of 1944 the Graves Registration Service had established 40 temporary cemeteries in Europe containing the bodies of 64,628 American soldiers. There were also another 21,000 isolated graves (isolated graves were defined as being in groups of less than 12 graves).(36) By the end of the war there had been further consolidation, and there now remained 37 temporary cemeteries, of which four were in Belgium:

Cemetery	Date Established	Number of bodies

Fosse-la Ville	8 September 1944	2,199
Henri-Chapelle	28 September 1944	17,319
Foy	4 February 1945	2,700
Neuville-en-Condroz	8 February 1945	c. 11,000

Despite the tremendous efforts made by the combat units and Graves Registration Teams to identify the bodies of those killed in action, a number of bodies were still unidentified at war's end. The task of attempting to identify these bodies was given to Central Identification Laboratories, which were co-located with many of the temporary military cemeteries. Here teams of American personnel closely examined the bodies and all clothing and equipment found with them, taking careful notes on all relevant details. Sometimes identification was made easy through the discovery of an identification tag or other documents on the body, which had been missed the first time the body was buried. Other clues were jewelry, such as class rings, the serial number of watches, and even laundry marks on clothing. Through the efforts of the Central Identification Laboratories, many bodies initially considered to be unknown were identified.(37)

In 1947 a former American soldier living in Liege, Belgium, joined the Graves Registration Service in Liege and began working as an identification technician in the Central Identification Laboratory there. Francis Duffy had served in Liege with a Railway Depot Company in late 1944 and early 1945, when he met and married a Belgian woman. They went to the U.S. in early 1946 but returned to Belgium the following year, after Marie Duffy's father became very ill. Francis Duffy's work as an identification technician at the Neuville en Condroz temporary cemetery was the beginning of an association with the cemetery that has continued to the present day, as he subsequently spent more than four decades as the Assistant Superintendent and then Superintendent of the cemetery. He has also long been a strong supporter of the American Overseas Memorial Day Association of Belgium. In recalling his days as an identification, Duffy stressed that all work done on the bodies of American soldiers was done by American technicians; there were no non-Americans involved in the process. Thus while local laborers opened the graves, all handling of the bodies was done by Americans. Once their work of identification was done, the bodies were prepared for final burial, either in the United States following repatriation or at the new permanent Ardennes American Cemetery at Neuville en Conrdoz.(38)

Graves Registration Service Identification Technician at Work

The Central Identification Laboratories and other teams of the Graves Registration Service played a major role in substantially reducing the number of American bodies that could not be identified. Thus of the 206,677 Americans killed in Europe in World War II, 113,834 bodies were identified and repatriated to the United States, 73,266 identified bodies were buried in the permanent cemeteries in Europe, along with 6,274 unidentified remains, and the bodies of 13,303 soldiers were never found and remain listing as Missing in Action.(39)

The Creation of Permanent Cemeteries for the American War Dead of World War II in Europe

Although the number of American dead in Europe in World War II was much greater than the total from World War I, the United States Congress decided to adopt the same approach taken after the previous war and create permanent cemeteries in Europe close to the scenes of major fighting. These were to be new cemeteries designed to commemorate scenes of major fighting; no World War II dead were to be buried in the existing cemeteries for the dead and missing soldiers of World War I. As in the past, these cemeteries would be carefully designed and would include unique memorial chapels at each site. In addition, the government would offer the next of kin of fallen American soldiers the choice of having the bodies of their loved ones repatriated to the United States at the cost of the government or left close to where they fell, buried with their comrades in the new, permanent cemeteries. Over 65% of the families chose to have the bodies returned to the United States, but that still left a total of almost 80,000 Americans buried in Europe in 37 temporary cemeteries. As it would not be possible to manage such a large number of cemeteries effectively and maintain the proper level of care, the government decided to consolidate all of the American dead from World War II in Europe into twelve permanent cemeteries: five in France, two in Italy, two in Belgium, one in England, one in the Netherlands, and one in Luxembourg. The selection of the sites was a joint project of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps' Graves Registration Service and the American Battlefield Monuments Commission, while the ABMC would select the designs for the new cemeteries and take over their administration once they were completed, running them alongside the existing World War I cemeteries in Europe.(40)

In selecting the permanent cemeteries for Belgium, the Army and the ABMC first chose Henri-Chapelle in eastern Belgium. Its proximity to Germany made it an ideal location for soldiers who had been killed in the bloody battles for the nearby Germany city of Aachen and the Huertgen Forest, as well as for the Americans who had died farther into Germany, in particular aircrews and prisoners of war.

As for a site for the second permanent cemetery in Belgium, the commander of the postwar U.S. Forces European Theater, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, originally hoped that one of the cemeteries in Belgium would be closely associated with the Battle of the Bulge, and he therefore initially favored the temporary cemetery at Foy near Bastogne. The temporary cemetery of Neuville en Condroz was initially not given much consideration as a permanent cemetery because of its close proximity to Henri-Chapelle and because the site itself was not associated with any major fighting. But close examination of the temporary site at Foy revealed two major disadvantages: its remote location far from major axes of communication and terrain that was unsuitable for a permanent cemetery. As a result, on 15 April 1947 the American Battlefield Monuments Commission decided to make Neuville en Condroz the site of the second permanent cemetery in Belgium. The new cemetery would, however, bear the name of the famous battle farther to the east in Belgium. Thus its name would be the Ardennes American Cemetery.(41)

During the second half of 1949, with most of the permanent burials completed, responsibility for the cemeteries passed by Presidential Order from the Graves Registration Service to the ABMC so that it could begin constructing the Memorial Chapels and also arrange for the permanent maintenance of the sites. In addition to the construction of the chapels themselves, there was much other work to be done on the sites, including leveling the squares of graves, pouring concrete bases for marble columns, preparing roads and walkways, carrying out the landscaping, constructing the various work buildings and the visitor's center, and placing the flagpoles.(42)

Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, 1944 to the Present

On 12 September 1944 troops of the US 1st Infantry Division captured the site that was ultimately occupied by Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery. Soon afterward the divisional graves registration officer, who had been tasked with finding a temporay burial site close to the fighting that was going on along the frontiers of Germany, saw the area with its beautiful vistas and gently sloping terrain and thought it would be an ideal site for a cemetery. Then on 17 September 1944 two companies of Graves Registration Service troops arrived, bringing with them the bodies of approximately 100 German troops. They requisitioned land from the Duesberg family to establish a temporary cemetery, and burials began. By 28 September a second temporary cemetery, this one for fallen Americans, was established next to the German one, and the first burials of U.S. soldiers soon followed.(43)

At the time when the temporary cemeteries were established, it seemed like the war might be close to ending. But German resistance stiffened after the Allies crossed the German borders, and heavy fighting followed in the city of Aachen and in the dense Huertgen Forest. American casualty figures began rising sharply, with many of the dead being placed in the Henri-Chapelle temporary cemetery. By the end of the war, the total number of U,S, soldiers buried at Henri-Chapelle temporary cemetery had risen to more than 17,000 (some sources say more than 19,000), while the neighboring German cemetery held 10,600 bodies. Then in 1946 the temporary German cemetery at Henri-Chapelle was disestablished and the bodies transferred to a larger German cemetery at Lommel, a process which was completed by 1947.(44)

The Temporary Cemetery at Henri-Chapelle in 1946

During this period Henri-Chapelle was selected to become one of the twelve permanent cemeteries to be located in Europe, although the actual site chosen was about 250 yards south of the temporary cemetery. The new site was considered more attractive due to its location on the crest of a ridge with excellent views to the east and west. Interestingly, this short move took the cemetery completely outside the boundaries of the commune of Henri Chapelle. Thus a 1970 newspaper article notes that, "It is a strange fact that the American Cemetery [at Henri Chapelle] is actually not at all part of the territory of that commune. The graves are in effect all part of Aubel, while the necropolis itself is situated in Hombourg."(45) The government of Belgium purchased the 23 hectares of land on which the cemetery is located from the Duesberg family and then ceded it to the United States Government for a symbolic payment of 1 franc.

On 27 July 1947 a special ceremony was held at Henry-Chapelle American Cemetery to mark the beginning of the repatriation program to return American War Dead to the United States for permanent burial. The first shipment of 5,600 American dead from Henri-Chapelle left Antwerp, Belgium on 4 October 1947. Over 30,000 Belgians attended a solemn and impressive ceremony presided over by representatives of the Belgian government and senior American officials.(46)

Procession of Coffins for Repatriation Passing Through Antwerp

Then on 9 June 1948 the first burials in the new permanent cemetery at Henri Chapelle began. Approximately 6,400 bodies from the temporary cemetery (39% of the original total before the repatriation of bodies to the United States) were moved to the new permanent site while the remainder of the reburials (slightly less than 2,600) came from the temporary cemeteries at Fosse and Foy, which were disestablished.

Following a competition for the design of the permanent cemetery at Henri-Chapelle, the ABMC selected the architectural firm of Holabird, Root and Burgee of Chicago, Illinois. The landscape architect was Franz Lipp of Chicago. The cemetery was laid out with a colonnade overlooking the burial area, with the names of 450 missing soldiers inscribed on the colonnade's rectangular piers; the seals of the states and territories are also carved on the piers. At the ends of the colonnade are located a chapel and a small museum with two maps of military operations in Europe carved in black granite.

Colonnade, Chapel and Musem

View from the Colonnade

On 9 July 1960 the new cemetery was officially inaugurated in a ceremony presided over by Mr. William Burden, US Ambassador to Belgium, General Jacob L. Devers, President of the American Battlefield Monuments Commission, Mr. John McCloy, representative of the President of the United States, Mr. Van der Scheuren, Belgian Minister of Defense, and many high ranking military and civilian officials.

Burial Area at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery

The burial area itself contains 7,989 American military dead, most from the advance into Germany and the Battle of the Bulge and its aftermath. There have been some additional burials in Henri-Chapelle since the creation of the permanent cemetery as bodies have been uncovered and identified and families have chosen to have them buried with their comrades rather than repatriated to the United States. The most recent burials came in the summer of 2002. In April 2001 the bodies of three American soldiers from the 99th Infantry Division were found in the Huertgen Forest near Monschau, Germany. After they were identified, they were buried in Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery on 22 June 2002 with full military honors, following a mass in the nearby Saint-Hubert Church. Here they would lie beside many of their comrades from the Battle of the Huertgen Forest.

Burial on 22 June 2002

Large crowd attending the burial ceremony on 22 June 2002

Recently there was an important addition to the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery with the construction of the AMVETS Memorial Carillon as part of this veterans group's program of installing bells at major American military cemeteries at home and abroad, a program which began in 1948. This new "Living Memorial" for Henri-Chapelle was dedicated at the Memorial Day Ceremony on 25 May 2002.

Ardennes American Cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz since 1945

The territory now occupied by the Ardennes American Cemetery was liberated by the US 1st Infantry Division on 8 September 1944 during its eastward advance through Belgium. Later the area was the site of a US Army General Hospital, where many of the casualties from the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944-January 1945) were treated. On 8 February 1945 seven soldiers who had died from their wounds while at the General Hospital were buried in a new temporary cemetery opened at Neuville-en-Condroz. This work was done by the 612th Graves Registration Company based in the nearby and older temporary cemetery at Henri Chapelle. As that cemetery had already grown quite large, with more than 17,000 bodies by the end of the war, and as there was also a large German cemetery next to it, with another 10,000 bodies, the Army decided to create the new temporary cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz. The new cemetery was one of the last ones created in Europe.

Initially the cemetery was not very large. A report from 20 February 1946 states that there were a total of 938 American bodies and 30 Allied bodies. The staff of the cemetery consisted of 1 officer, 5 soldiers, and 22 civilians.(47) But the number of burials continued to grow steadily, in part due to the consolidation of isolated graves into the temporary cemeteries, but even more due to the efforts by search teams from the Graves Registration Service to find and recover the bodies of US personnel who had died in Germany, either as members of aircrews shot down over Germany or as prisoners of war in German P.O.W. camps. Thus by 14 August 1946 Neuville-en-Condroz held a total of 5,337 US bodies and 31 Allies. At its peak, the cemetery held around 11,000 bodies.

The Temporary Cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz in 1946

Throughout the immediate postwar years, search teams from the Graves Registration Service had been combing Germany, looking for the graves of American aircrews. In 1948 a number of unidentified American bodies found by the search teams were brought to the Central Identification Lab at Neuville-en-Condroz.(48)

1948 also saw a huge demonstration of support by the local population for the continued presence of the American cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz after a Brussels-based building society which had owned the land on which the cemetery was located demanded in rather insulting terms that the Graves Registration Service "depart with all that they had brought with them". Five days later, on 19 September 1948, the Association Belgo-Americain held a large memorial ceremony at Neuville-en-Condroz cemetery to bid farewell to the bodies of Americans being repatriated to the United States. Among the attendees were the Belgian Ministers of Defense and Interior, and senior Belgian and American army officers. The crowd was estimated at more than 10,000 people, who had been assisted in coming by the local newspaper La Meuse, which had hired a number of buses to bring the citizens of Liege and surrounding villages to the ceremony and thereby show that the building society's letter was not representative of the feelings of the Belgian people.(49)

Pro-Cemetery Rally 19 September 1946

19 September 1948 also marked the closing of the temporary cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz in order to carry out the repatriation program and begin preparation for the permanent burials. On 8 March 1949 the first bodies were placed in their permanent graves.

On 30 June 1951 the Graves Registration Service transferred responsibility for the Ardennes Cemetery to the American Battlefield Monuments Commission. By 31 December of that year the reburials from the temporary graves had been completed and the permanent cemetery now contained 5,164 graves arranged in the form of a Greek cross separated by two broad intersecting paths. The overall design for the permanent cemetery and memorial had come from the architectural firm of Reinhard, Hofmeister and Walquist of New York City, while the landscape architect was Richard K. Webel of Rosyln, Long Island. The Memorial itself is an impressive rectangular structure with a massive 17-feet high American eagle on the south face. The eagle was designed by C. Paul Jennewein of New York City and sculpted by Jean Juge of Paris.

The North Face of the Memorial at Ardennes American Cemetery

Graves at Ardennes American Cemetery

Within the chapel there are three large wall maps made of inlaid marble, illustrating the defeat of the Germans' Ardennes Offensive in 1944-45 and the subsequent advance of the Allied armies into the Rhineland. There is also an inscription detailing these events in three languages: English, French and Flemish. Along the outside of the memorial, the names of 462 American missing are inscribed on granite slabs.

Interior of the Chapel at Ardennes American Cemetery

Construction of the Memorial began in 1955, and it was completed in early 1960. On 11 July 1960 Ardennes American Cemetery was officially opened in the presence of Crown Prince Albert of Belgium and the Honorable John J. McCloy, personal representative of the President of the United States, plus many senior American and Belgian officials. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent a personal message in English and French to all the participants saying "On behalf of all the American people I send their greetings to you on this solemn day of homage and join with them in proud tribute to the men who rest here forever at Neuville-en-Condroz. The sacrifice of our fellow-countrymen in the cause of liberty has forever hallowed these acres. They died that justice among nations might prevail and that all peoples might enjoy freedom and live in peace. The American soldiers who sleep in the friendly soil of Belgium will never be forgotten. Let all of us who honor the memory of these brave men keep faith with the ideals for which they died."(50)

The Opening Ceremony at Ardennes American Cemetery, 11 July 1960

At the time of its dedication, the north face of the Memorial was completely blank, as can be seen in the above photograph. Soon afterward (c. 1962-63), the shoulder patches of the major U.S. Army and Army Air Corps formations from which the soldiers and airmen buried at Ardennes American Cemetery came were added to the north face of the Memorial and can be clearly seen in the photograph below of U.S. Ambassador Ridgeway B, Knight's visit to the cemetery in March 1966.

Visit of U.S. Ambassador Ridgeway B. Knight to Ardennes American Cemetery on 3 March 1966
In addition, the following inscription was placed below the grouping of shoulder patches:

TO THE SILENT HOST
WHO ENDURED ALL AND GAVE ALL
THAT MANKIND MIGHT LIVE
IN FREEDOM AND IN PEACE

At the time it was established in 1951, the permanent cemetery at Ardennes American Cemetery had 5,164 graves. This was, however, not the final total of American soldiers buried in the cemetery. The ABMC chose the Ardennes Cemetery to be the burial place for bodies found in the future if they could not be identified, if no relatives could be found to decide whether or not the body should be repatriated, or if relatives could be found but decided that the soldier should be buried with his comrades. As a result, 164 additional bodies have been buried at Neuville-en-Condroz since 1951, the last being in 1988. Several other bodies have been found more recently but have been identified and repatriated to the United States at the wish of the families. And, as already mentioned, the most recent bodies found in 2001 were buried at Henri-Chapelle, the cemetery closest to the scene of the fighting in which they were killed.(51)

Burial of Four Unknown American Soldiers at Ardennes American Cemetery, 30 January 1969

Ardennes American Cemetery has seen a number of distinguished visitors, including the current King of Belgium, Albert II, twice while he was Crown Prince. The first occasion was the opening ceremony in 1960, and Albert returned to the cemetery for Memorial Day in 1984 to mark the 40th Anniversary of the liberation of Belgium and the Battle of the Bulge.

Crown Prince Albert (now King Albert II) at Ardennes American Cemetery in 1984(52)

No American President has ever visited one of the American cemeteries in Belgium (their attention is generally focused on the cemeteries in Normandy during major anniversaries of the D-Day landings), but the John S. D. Eisenhower, son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower (who himself had visited Henri Chapelle Cemetery while still commander in chief of Allied Forces in Europe in May 1945), visited Ardennes American Cemetery several times in an official capacity while serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium.

Ambassador John S. D. Eisenhower (with his hand over his heart) at the Ardennes American Cemetery for Memorial Day 1969
Ambassador Eisenhower seated between the King's Representative and J. Stephen Stanton, President of AOMDA-Belgium, Memorial Day 1970

Memorial Day and the AOMDA of Belgium Since World War II

Memorial Day ceremonies began in Belgium immediately after the end of the war. Thus on 30 May 1945 the Graves Registration Service held a large Memorial Day service at the Henri-Chapelle temporary cemetery with General Dwight D. Eisenhower present. Other prominent attendees included General Omar Bradley, the Belgian Defense Minister and the Governor Leclerc.(53) At the nearby Neuville-en-Condroz temporary cemetery, which had just been established three months earlier and contained only 300 graves at that time, no official ceremony was planned. Nonetheless, the Graves Registration Service personnel decided to mark the occasion by themselves and informed the mayor of Neuville-en-Condroz, Monsieur Jean Gony, of their plans. He immediately convened the town council, which then decided to stage a commemorative march to the cemetery on Memorial Day, with school children, veterans' group and town officials all taking part in the march to honor "The Heroes Who Gave Us Back Our Freedom". Although unofficial, Memorial Day 1945 was a major event in the town. The following year, after the cemetery had become much larger in size, the first official Memorial Day Ceremony took place. Once again the townspeople of Neuville-en-Condroz turned out in large numbers to participate in the ceremony and honor the Americans who had died liberating their country.(54)

General of the Armies Dwight D. Eisenhower (second from the left on the reviewing stand) at the 1945 Memorial Day Ceremony at Henri-Chapelle
Schoolchildren arriving at Neuville-en-Condroz to celebrate Memorial Day in 1946

There was also a Memorial Day Ceremony held at Flanders Field American Cemetery on 30 May 1945 by a number of U.S. Army units located in Belgium and the town of Waregem itself. This ceremony revived old traditions, as the school children of Waregem again learned the U.S. National Anthem and sang it at the ceremony. A copy of the program for this ceremony is reproduced below.

All of these Memorial Day Ceremonies in May 1945, just a few weeks after the end of the war, were organized by the Graves Registration Service personnel at the temporary World War II cemeteries, other Army units in Belgium, and by local Belgian officials. As the Burgomaster of Waregem noted in a letter to the Governor of West Flanders, the ceremony at Flanders Field was conducted by the Army because the "'American Overseas Memorial Day Committee' had not yet returned to Belgium."(55) But by Memorial Day 1946, the American community in Belgium had been reestablished, and with it the Belgian Branch of AOMDA. Thus the printed programs for the 1946 Memorial Day Ceremony at Flanders Field clearly stated that they were from the Belgian Branch of AOMDA and contained the following statement on the last page:

"The American Overseas Memorial Day Association" drukt hierbij haar dankbaarheid uit aan het Belgische volk, en in het bizonder aan de Waregemsche bevolking en haar Burgemeester voor de toegewijde zorgen besteed aan de graven hunner medeburgers, gesneuveld in de 'Vlamsche Velden". Moge dezen geest verder leven en onze beide volkeren brengen tot een welgemeende vriendschap!

[The American Overseas Memorial Day Association hereby expresses its gratitude to the Belgian people, and in particular to the population of Waregem and its Burgomaster for the care bestowed on the graves of our citizens buried in Flanders Fields. May this gesture live on and soon bring heartfelt friendship to our two peoples.](56)

Initially AOMDA-Belgium only ran the traditional ceremony at Flanders Field, leaving the ceremonies at the temporary World War II cemeteries in the hands of the Army. As had been the case before the war, the AOMDA offered free transportation to the ceremony at Waregem from major cities in Belgium. This first notice of postwar AOMDA activities was typed on plain paper with no letterhead, but by the early 1950s, AOMDA had its own letterhead stationery and was running ceremonies at all three cemeteries.(57)

Comparison of AOMDA Correspondence from 1946 and 1951

The ceremonies at Flanders Field have always featured tributes to the fallen by the Burgomaster of Waregem and other Belgian officials plus an address by a senior US official. In 1945 the U.S. speaker was a military officer, but the following year the American Ambassador to Belgium delivered the U.S. tribute. Over the next two decades the American speaker was usually a senior U.S. diplomat, often the Ambassador or his chargé d'affaires. Beginning in 1967, however, and continuing to this day, there have been two American tributes to the fallen: one by a senior military officer and the other by a senior diplomat (whenever possible, the Ambassador). For the first decade after the establishment of the military tribute, this address was made by the Commanding General of the Vth Corps Artillery, but later the U.S. Military Representative to NATO, a more senior position (three-star rank) became the military speaker, a tradition that has continued to this day.(58)

Admiral William D. Smith, U.S. Military Representative to NATO, speaking at Henri Chapelle American Cemetery, Memorial Day 1992

1967 marked another major change in the Memorial Day ceremonies in addition to the second U.S. tribute to the fallen. Previously the U.S. Consul-General in Antwerp had served as the Master of Ceremonies for the Memorial Day ceremonies at Flanders Field, but in 1967 William F. Grell, President of the Belgian Branch of AOMDA, took over this responsibility, and it has remained in the hands of the AOMDA Belgium's President ever since.(59) At the two World War II cemeteries, however, the President of AOMDA-Belgium seems to have always served as the master of ceremonies, because the Consul-General in Antwerp has historically been associated with the World War I cemetery in Flanders, not the two World War II cemeteries in Wallonia.(60)

In addition to serving as MC for all three ceremonies, the President of AOMDA-Belgium lays the association's wreath at the ceremonies and, together with the Superintendent, escorts distinguished guests and - most important of all - next of kin around the cemetery after the ceremony.

AOMDA-Belgium President Dick DeBono presiding over the ceremony in 1983
President Joep van Dierendonck presenting AOMDA-Belgium's wreath in 1979
AOMDA-Belgium President William F. Grew (far right) accompanying Mr. andMrs. J. Adamo of Salem, Massachusetts, Next of Kin to Sgt. Charles J. Slavin, along with Lt. Col. and Mrs. T. Runyan, Brig. Gen. and Mrs. J. S. Blocker, and Minister Counsellor M. Manfull, after the Memorial Day Ceremony at Henri Chapelle, 1967

One additional task for the President of AOMDA-Belgium during the Memorial Day Weekend ceremonies is to lay a wreath at the war memorial (Monument des Morts) in Neuville-en-Condroz. This brief ceremony by American and Belgian officials now takes place on Saturday morning, prior to the ceremony at the Ardennes American Cemetery, although in the 1960s the ceremony at the war memorial had occurred at noon, after completion of the main ceremony in the cemetery.(61)

AOMDA-Belgium President Joep van Dierendonck, Memorial Day 1979
AOMDA-Belgium President Jim Begg and Lt. Gen. M. J. Byron, USMC, 1998

Of course the activities of the President and the other AOMDA-Belgium Executive Committee Members on Memorial Day Weekend represent only the tip of the iceberg as far as their work in making Memorial Day a success each year is concerned. Planning for the ceremonies, making all necessary arrangements with the cemeteries and the embassy, developing the annual fund-raising campaign theme and poster, and sending out the fund-raising letters take months of work, with monthly meetings to ensure proper co-ordination. In addition to the members of AOMDA-Belgium's Executive Committee, the superintendents of the cemeteries (or their deputies) and the U.S. Military Attaché to Belgium are key participants in the monthly planning meetings.

Ambassador Charles H. Price II and AOMDA President Joep van Dierendonck with several AOMDA Executive Committee members (including Bob Donnay, 3rd from left, and Eric Osterweil, 3rd from right), during Memorial Day 1982

AOMDA President Jim Begg presenting the Mayor of Neuville-en-Condroz with the 1998 Memorial Day Poster

The content of the ceremony at Flanders Field has remained remarkably unchanged over the decades, with the school children of Waregem always playing a major role, first by singing the U.S. National Anthem (as has been the case since the earliest days of Memorial Day ceremonies in Belgium) and then by laying flowers on each of the graves. In 1963 a Jewish Prayer was added to the ceremony and has continued ever since, and in 1985 a new tradition started, with an American high school student reading the poem "In Flander's Fields". Readers have come from American and international schools all over Belgium: St. John's International School, Antwerp International School, the International School of Brussels, the Brussels American School, and the SHAPE American High School.

The programs of the Memorial Day ceremonies at the two World War II cemeteries have been very similar to those at Flanders Field, with the exception of the reading of the Flanders Field poem. The participation of schoolchildren decorating graves with flowers is a key feature at all three cemeteries.

One of the most impressive features of the ceremonies at all three cemeteries has been the participation of U.S. Air Force combat aircraft executing the famous "Missing Man" formation in tribute to the fallen (four aircraft fly in formation and then one peels off upward, heading for the heavens). It is not possible to date the start of the fly-overs exactly, but they seem to have started at the World War II cemeteries around 1967 and then were added to Flanders Field in the early 1980s.(62) Inclement weather has sometimes forced the cancellation of fly-overs, and at times the heavy operational commitments of the U.S. Air Force units in Europe have been another cause for the cancellation of fly-overs, including the one that was originally scheduled to take place in May 1999 but had to be cancelled because of the operational requirements of the air operations during the Kosovo Conflict.(63)

U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolts executing the "Missing Man" Formation over Henri Chapelle American Cemetery, Memorial Day 2003

Following the establishment of the two permanent cemeteries for World War II dead alongside the existing Flanders Field Cemetery for World War I dead, there have been three Memorial Day Ceremonies each year in Belgium, one at each of the cemeteries. The Flanders Field ceremonies are held on Sunday afternoon, as has been the case since the 1920s, while the ceremonies at Ardennes and Henri-Chapelle Cemeteries are held on Saturday, the former in the morning, the latter in the afternoon.

With AOMDA-Belgium Executive Committee members and high-ranking U.S. officials thus tied up all day on Saturday, the Association soon began holding a Memorial Day Luncheon so that the individuals involved could have a meal between the two ceremonies. A second reason for the luncheon was to promote Belgian-American patriotic relations, as a number of Belgians were also invited to the luncheon. Hosts for the luncheon are the US Ambassador to Belgium and the President of AOMDA-Belgium. In addition to the lunch for the AOMDA Committee and senior Belgian and American officials, AOMDA also provides a meal for the soldiers and other support staff involved in the ceremonies.(64) On the following day, at Flanders Field, there is a reception at the t'Oud Konijntje Restaurant in Waregem following the ceremony.

AOMDA President Dick DeBono and Admiral William
AOMDA Members and Invited Guests
D. Smith at the Memorial Day Luncheon in 1988. at the t'Oud Konijntje Restaurant

One of the most important features at the Memorial Day Ceremonies is the participation of the personal representative of the King of the Belgians. The King's representative goes to one of the three cemeteries in Belgium each year, and this participation rotates from year to year. A special chair is set aside for the King's representative, and he carries a sword symbolizing his office.

King's Representative (with sword) in his special chair at Henri Chapelle

One important feature of the post-World War II Memorial Day ceremonies has been the large number of Belgian veterans groups (and more recently, sons of veterans) presenting wreaths. This was not always the case. Francis Duffy, long-time superintendent of Ardennes American Cemetery, notes that the Memorial Day ceremonies used to be rather small, with just a few Belgian groups on the program (although large numbers of Belgians attended the ceremonies). But starting in the 1960s the number of Belgians presenting flowers grew steadily, even though the cemeteries made no special effort to encourage this.

Belgian Veterans Honoring Memorial Day at Henri-Chapelle

Duffy believes that the American cemeteries have become a magnet for the various Belgian veterans groups. Some of the veterans served in units attached to the American forces and thus feel close ties to their American comrades, but another possible reason for the participation of so many different Belgian groups is the lack of a Belgian holiday and ceremony comparable to Memorial Day. The All Saints Day holiday in November pays tribute to all the dead in all graveyards, not just those from military conflicts, so there is no special association with World War II. Belgian veterans have thus tended to gravitate to the American cemeteries with their very strong links to the World Wars and the well-organised Memorial Day ceremonies held there. Memorial Day has thus been adopted by Belgian veterans as their holiday for honoring all the Allied dead of World War II.

AOMDA President Jim Begg with a Belgian World War II
Veteran and Lt. Gen. M. J. Byron, USMC, in May 1998

One very active veteran of the Belgian Secret Army (resistance fighters against the occupying German forces) was the late Mme. Colette Stasse, who was long a key member of the Executive Committee of AOMDA-Belgium. Former AOMDA President Joep van Dierendonck recalls that Mme. Stasse was "the self-appointed mother of the American community". As a native Dutchman but naturalized US citizen, Dierendonck originally felt reluctant to take on the job of running AOMDA, but Colette Stasse convinced him to accept the post, due to his strong support of AOMDA and his many ties within the American community, including the American Club of Brussels, the American Chamber of Commerce, the Boy Scouts of America, and the United Fund of Belgium. The examples of Dierendonck, Stasse, and many others show that AOMDA is not exclusively an American organization; Belgians and other nationalities also play an important role in the association's work.

Superintendent Horace Thompson and Colette Stasse

On occasion there have been requests by German veterans groups to participate in the Memorial Day ceremonies. Francis Duffy recalls that during a Memorial Day ceremony in the 1960s, one of the Ardennes cemetery workers came up to him and whispered, "Mr. Duffy, Mr. Duffy, there's a German here with a group that wants to present a wreath." The German turned out to be a baron who was the head of a veterans unit of paratroopers. After Duffy politely explained to the German what the ceremony was all about, he agreed to wait until the ceremony had ended before presenting his flowers.

The Memorial Day ceremonies have been remarkably free of controversies, even during periods when there was considerable opposition in Europe to the policies of the United States. Thus Francis Duffy recalls that during the Vietnam War, when the cemetery staff thought that there might be attempts to disrupt the Memorial Day ceremonies or demonstrate against the United States in some fashion, these fears never came true.

The Belgian people have thus remained loyal to the original purpose of the Memorial Day ceremonies - honoring the Americans who died in liberating Belgium during the two World Wars - and have continued to come to the ceremonies in large numbers. Getting Americans resident in Belgium to turn out for the ceremonies has not been so easy. As President of the American Women's Club of Brussels, Patty DeBono (wife of AOMDA President Dick DeBono) did all she could to spread the word about the ceremonies and make it as easy as possible for individuals to attend. She sent out letters with maps showing how to get to the cemeteries; she tried to arrange buses from the major cities in Belgium, but despite her efforts, the turnout of Americans remained low. Evidently the competition from Little League Baseball and adult softball games is very strong on the Memorial Day Weekend. Encouraging American attendance at the ceremonies is a perennial problem for AOMDA-Belgium and remains one of the greatest challenges for the future, as the Belgians attending the ceremonies far outnumber the Americans.(65)

Fund raising has also become more difficult in the past few decades, as the number of Americans living in Belgium has declined substantially through cuts in both military forces and the American business community. And many former American-owned firms which had been staunch financial backers of AOMDA's Memorial Day Ceremonies are now multinational firms that do not wish to be identified with a particular nation and thus no longer contribute to the work of AOMDA-Belgium. The Executive Committee therefore hopes that a way can be found to secure long-term funding for AOMDA-Belgium's activities, so that the organization can focus all its attention on the ceremonies themselves and not have to spend so much time on fund-raising. AOMDA-Belgium achieved this goal in the 1920s through the creation of a special fund which unfortunately disappeared during World War II, but perhaps with the assistance of "The Greatest Generation" of World War II veterans a new fund can be established to once again support the activities of AOMDA-Belgium for the foreseeable future.

Recently an important step has been taken in that direction through the founding of the "Friends of the American Overseas Memorial Day Association of Belgium" in the United States by Rob and Sharon Sanders of Harwich, Connecticut. Rob's uncle Bob Sanders was killed in action as an Army Air Corps bomber crew member over Austria on 22 August 1944, but the family never knew anything about the circumstances of the death or the location of the body because the dead airman's mother refused to acknowledge her son's death and blocked all contact with the government. Then 55 years later, Rob Sanders determined to find his missing uncle and learn all he could about what had happened to him on that fateful mission. Rob succeeded not only in finding the burial site of his uncle, which is in the Ardennes American Cemetery, but also in locating official reports on the crash and finally even meeting with survivors of the crashed bomber. The culmination of Rob's search came on 19 May 2001, when Rob and his wife Sharon paid their respects at the gravesite in Ardennes American Cemetery and Superintendent Hans Hooker raised the flag that had covered the airman's coffin at the original burial after the war (it had been sent to his mother in a package that she never opened). This entire story was published in a moving series of articles entitled "The Final Mission: A Six-Part Story about War, Remembrance and the Mystery of Human Connection" by Robin Lord in the Cape Cod Times from 23 May through 28 May 2001.(66) During their visit to Belgium Rob and Sharon Sanders also experienced the Memorial Day ceremonies at Ardennes American Cemetery and were deeply impressed with the dignity of the ceremonies. After retuning home they decided to support the work of AOMDA-Belgium by establishing a fund-raising organization, and they have continued to return to Memorial Day ceremonies in Belgium ever since.

Rob and Sharon Sanders at Henri Chapelle Cemetery on Memorial Day 2003

Despite the growing difficulties in raising funds and getting a good turnout of Americans at the Memorial Day ceremonies, the dedicated volunteers of AOMDA-Belgium continue to carry out the association's mission "to perpetuate remembrance of the American servicemen and servicewomen who died during the First and Second World Wars" with the three goals of generating maximum attendance at the ceremonies, ensuring that the ceremonies are performed to the highest standards of decorum and tradition, and generating the necessary individual and corporate donations to ensure the continuation of this mission.(67)

Appendix 1

Presidents of AOMDA-Belgium

(Years shown are those for which there is positive evidence, such as correspondence, media reports, or recollections of current and former AOMDA officials; unfortunately there are a number of gaps in our knowledge of the service of many dedicated individuals as President of AOMDA-Belgium.)

Clinton E. MacEachran, U.S. Consult at Ghent	President in 1923, 1926
Mr. Hallam Tuck	President in 1936
Milton M. Brown	President in 1937
T.L. Hughes	President in 1938
Colonel Robert D. Brown	President in 1939
O.V. Clairborne	President in 1940
Robert P. Pflieger	President in 1951, 1953, 1954
Dr. Clement Van Boven	Acting President in1955
Robert Jerosch, Director, Pan Am, Benelux	President 1956-1961
Sanford Harris	President c. 1962-1966
William Grell, Lt. Col., US Marine Corps (Ret.) Westbury Hotel, Brussels	President 1967-1968
J. Stephen Stanton, Representative of the State of New York in Brussels	President 1968-1971, 1973
Roderick A. "Bud" Duff, Esso	Acting President, 1972
Robert Wendell, Chase Manhattan Bank	President 1974-1977
William Roach, Pfizer	President 1977-1978
Joep van Dierendonck, Security Pacific Bank	President 1978-1982
Robert Donnay, A.T. Kearney	President 1982-1983
Michael R. Bonsignore, Honeywell Europe	President 1983-1984
Richard De Bono, Honeywell Europe	President 1985-1993
Jim Begg, BLD Europe	President 1994-present

Appendix 2

AOMDA Advertising Posters

1996 Poster

1998 Poster

2001 Poster

1 Ralph Vigoda, "Where did Memorial Day start?", Knight Ridder Newspapers syndicated article, Stars and Stripes, 26 May 2001, p. 12.

2 Information about the Columbus ceremonies and those of the cities that follow is compiled from the above Vigoda article and the excellent internet article by David Schwalbe, "Memorial Day," in the About.com Guide to American History, http://americanhistory.mining.co.com/education/americanhistory/library/wee.../aa060297.html

3 Sandrin Coorevits, ed., Memorial Rain: Tentoonstelling Waregem 1914-1918, 8 mei - 2 juni 2002 (Stad Waregem, 2002), p. 77.

4 Ferdinand Foch, The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott (New York, 1931), pp. 408, 417-420.

5 John J. Pershing, My Experiences in the World War, 1931 (reprint edition TAB Books, Blue Ridge Summit, Pa, 1989) vol. 2, page 385; Foch, Memoirs, p. 429.

6 Memorial Rain, p. 78.

7 Pershing, Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 385; Memorial Rain, p. 78. For a very detailed account of the fighting near Waregem in the closing days of World War I see Dr. J.-P. Deweer, De Slag aan de Schelde 1918: Het VIe Franse Leger en de 91st en 37th Div. van de "American Expeditionary Forces", Oudenaarde, 1988.

8 Stadarchief Waregem

9 Stadarchief Waregem

10 Memorial Rain, pp. 104-105.

11 Transcript of the Burgomaster's 1920 Memorial Day Ceremony Invitation, from the Flanders Field Cemetery. For the original Flemish text see the copy in the Stadsarchief (City Archives) Waregem, File 642.35, Memorial Day 1920.

12 National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland, (hereafter cited as NARA), Record Group 165, Records of the US Military Attaché Brussels, File 2450-138, Letter, Military Attaché in Brussels to Director of Military Intelligence, Subject: Memorial Day, 1 June 1920.

13 Memorial Rain, p. 107.

14 NARA, Record Group 165, File 2051-152, Letter, Military Attaché in Brussels to Director of Military Intelligence, Subject: Translation of Speech by Minister of National Defense, 6 June 1920, with attached "Speech Delivered on Memorial Day, May 30th, 1921, by Mr. Albert Devèze, Minister of National Defense."

15 Le Soir, 31 May 1922. The Anglo-Belgian Times issues of May and June 1922 made no mention of any Memorial Day ceremonies at the cemetery, nor did any of the major Belgian papers. On 3 June 1922 Het Volk of Ghent featured a front-page photograph of the Memorial Day ceremony held in Paris, so the lack of any similar reporting for Belgium in this or any other newspaper indicates that if there was a ceremony held at Flanders Field that year, it must have been very low-key, involving just the Graves Registration Service personnel and perhaps some of the local population.

16 This photograph was obviously taken after the repatriation of bodies had begun in 1921, because there are many gaps in the rows of crosses. But the crowd is much smaller than in the dated photos from 1923, so I believe that the photograph was most likely taken in 1922.

17 Anglo-Belgian Times, 19 June 1922.

18 "History of the American Club of Brussels, 1919-1928," Brussels, no date (1928), typescript, p.1. I would like to thank Dr. Jerome Sheridan for providing me a copy of this important manuscript.

19 Interview with Russell Porter, President of AOMDA France, 18 November 2002; interview with Richard Vasquez, Co-President of AOMDA France, 20 November 2002. AOMDA Letterheads from the 1930s also give 1920 as the organization's founding date. See, for example, the AOMDA Belgian Branch's letter "To All Americans in Belgium" on 1 May 1937 announcing the ceremony to be held on 6 June 1937 at Waregem. Stadsarchief Waregem, 642.35, Memorial Day 1937.

20 Anglo-Belgian Times, 4 June 1923.

21 The Waregem city archives have an extensive file for this first major Belgian-American Memorial Day Ceremony at the cemetery on 3 June 1923, including the Burgomaster's invitation (dated 24 May 1923) to the ceremony at 1430 hours on Sunday, 3 June 1923, and a number of photos of the ceremony. On 17 June 1923 the local Waregem newspaper De Vrede published a letter from Major R. P. Harbold, Chief of the American Graves Registration Service in Europe, to the Burgomaster of Waregem thanking him for the very moving ceremony held at the cemetery on 3 June 1923. Stadsarchief Waregem, 642.35, Memorial Day.

22 "History of the American Club of Brussels, 1919-1928," p. 5. This fund-raising effort in 1923 is the earliest recorded mention of the Belgian Branch of AOMDA. While it is possible that the association might already have come into existence in the latter part of 1922, I believe that the most likely founding date would have been in the early months of 1923, as members of the American Clubs of Brussels and Antwerp began thinking about ways to commemorate Memorial Day that year.

23 On 23 April 1926 MacEachran wrote (in French) to the Burgomaster of Waregem, Felix Verhaeghe, that "the Americans residing in Belgium have organised a society called the 'American Overseas Memorial Day Association in Belgium' which is a subdivision of the association in Paris. I was elected President of this association..." (Stadsarchief Waregem, Memorial Day 1926 file). This is the first letter I have been able to find from an AOMDA officer to the Burgomaster of Waregem concerning preparations for the annual Memorial Day Ceremony, but I am sure that there were earlier letters which have not survived.

24 In 1926 AOMDA of Belgium sent 500 francs to the city to cover the expenses of the Memorial Day Ceremony. Stadsarchief Waregem, Memorial Day 1926 file, Letter, AOMDA-Belgium Treasurer Milton M. Brown to Waregem Burgomaster P. Boulet, 28 May 1926.

25 Letter, Belgian Branch of AOMDA to All Americans in Belgium, 1 May 1937; 1937 English-language Memorial Day Ceremony Program. Both in Stadsarchief Waregem, Memorial Day, 1937.

26 "History of the American Club of Brussels, 1921-1928," pp. 13-15; Stad Waregem, Memorial Rain: Tentoonstelling Waregem 1914-18918, 8 mei-2 juni 2002 (Waregem, 2002), pp. 141-152.

27 Stadarchief Waregem, 642.35, Uitnedegungen Memorial Day, 1920-1969.

28 ABMC, "Flanders Field American Cemetery," September 2000.

29 NARA, "Gold Star Mothers' Pilgrimage," Prologue, vol. 31, no. 20 (Summer 1999); also available on the National Archives and Records Administration website, www.nara.gov.

30 Memorial Rain, pp. 135-136.

31 Diary Notes, 12 July 1940. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College Park, MD. Record Group (RG) 117, World War I Cemetery Files, Box 49.

32 Letter, Major Holle to General Pershing, 14 July 1940. NARA RG 117, Box 133, Monthly Reports of the Paris Office, ABMC.