The sacrifice all over the globe by the American people to defeat tyranny, liberate conquered nations, defend representative governments and end human slavery is unprecedented in world history.
The United States, just in World War II alone, fought to liberate dozens of conquered nations, from Europe to Africa to Asia.
The American Battle Monuments Commission honors the cost paid by U.S. armed forces.
AMERICA’S WAR HEROES BURIED OVERSEAS REMAIN DEFENDERS OF LIBERTY: THEY ‘CONTINUE TO SERVE’
The commission manages 26 U.S. military cemeteries and 31 memorials to American heroes in 17 different countries. They honor 224,000 U.S. service members killed and buried overseas or missing in action.
The liberation of France, the defeat of Imperial Japan and the conquest of National Socialist Germany are well known.
But the United States in World War II also helped liberate Algeria and Libya in Africa, Greece and Norway in Europe, and China, Indonesia and Vietnam in Asia — among many other nations.
ABMC memorials are found on distant Pacific islands and as far away as New Zealand.
The effort all over the world has come with a staggering cost.
“We send our young Americans to go fight for … freedom, liberty and democracy,” ABMC secretary Charles K. Djou said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.
MEMORIAL DAY: IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT THE SOLEMN AMERICAN HOLIDAY
“We go home when the job is done. And the only thing America asks for in exchange for that sacrifice are a few small plots of land to bury our dead.”
This Memorial Day weekend and well beyond, here’s a look at five cemeteries in nations that may surprise many Americans.
The tiny Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, about two-thirds the size of Rhode Island, is rarely mentioned in the annals of World War II history.
But Americans paid a horrific cost to liberate the European nation during World War II, as evident in the graves of 5,070 GIs interred across the 17 acres of the Luxembourg American Cemetery.
Gen. George S. Patton, killed after victory in Europe in a mysterious auto accident, is buried beneath a gravestone alone facing the rows of other Americans. It looks as if he’s still commanding his men even in death.
The Mexican-American War of the 1840s was caused by disputed claims over the new U.S. state of Texas.
MEMORIAL DAY: IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT THE SOLEMN AMERICAN HOLIDAY
About 14,000 Americans died in the conflict.
This dignified 1-acre cemetery in the heart of the sprawling capital city of Mexico includes the remains of 813 Americans and others in wall crypts.
The Mexico City National Cemetery also includes a monument that marks the common grave of 750 unidentified Americans who died during the war.
It reads: “To the honored memory of 750 Americans known but to God whose bones collected by their country’s order are here buried.”
This 16-acre site highlights the scope of the effort to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Panama Canal, which the United States built from 1904 to 1914.
American servicemembers and veterans played a giant role in the effort.
Today, 5,557 Americans are buried today near the Panama Canal at the 16-acre Corozal American Cemetery.
They served the United States over a century of conflicts, including the Mexican-American War, Civil War, World War I, World War II and other global conflicts.
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A 12-foot granite obelisk pays homage to American service members.
It reads in both Spanish and English: “This memorial has been erected by the United States of America in humble tribute to all interred here who served in its Armed Forces or contributed to the construction, operation and maintenance of the Panama Canal.”
The staggering human cost and vast scope of America’s effort to defeat tyranny around the world is perhaps most evident at this sprawling 152-acre site in the Philippines.
The Manila American Cemetery is the largest in the world operated by the ABMC.
The remains of 16,859 Americans, most killed in World War II, rest on a plateau overlooking the Manila skyline.
The cemetery also includes a memorial honoring 36,286 Americans missing in action nearly 80 years since the end of World War II.
The Philippines is also the home of Clark Veterans Cemetery, where 8,000 additional American soldiers are laid to rest.
The effort to defeat Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party began for U.S. troops not in Europe but in Africa.
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Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942, was America’s first great offensive operation of World War II.
The U.S.- and British-led effort forces the Germans to surrender or flee the continent six months later.
But fighting took place across the expanse of North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt.
The North Africa American Cemetery is a reminder of the cost.
It includes the graves of 2,841 U.S. war dead, along with a memorial listing the names of 3,724 missing in action.
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