History Talk - From Combat to Commemoration: The U.S. Army and America’s Overseas Cemeteries

World War I forced the United States and the Army to confront two unprecedented questions: how to care for more than 80,000 American war dead overseas, and how to memorialize a conflict fought far from home. From this challenge emerged the Battle Monuments Board—an Army-led effort that evolved into the modern American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC).

In this History Talk, trace the Army’s foundational role in American memorialization, from General John J. Pershing’s influence and the symbolism of white marble crosses to debates over repatriation and permanent overseas burial. Follow the transition from a military program to a civilian agency, the expansion of memorial efforts after World War II, collaboration with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, and modern-day Memorial Day commemorations worldwide.

Together, these stories reveal how the Army helped shape not only how America fights wars, but how it remembers them.

This program will be presented by Benjamin D. Brands, Ph.D., Historian, and Liz DeLucia, Training and Education Officer, at the American Battle Monuments Commission.