Hallowed Grounds=Overseas American Military Cemeteries-POPPIES! "In Flanders Fields the Poppies Blow"

Around the world 125,000 American service men and women from World War I (30,000) and WW II (95,000) lay buried in foreign lands.  The bodies of about 40% of those killed abroad during these wars were allowed by their survivors to remain overseas.  Around 60% of those killed were returned to the United States at the request of their survivors.  94,000 from both wars are still missing.  Prior to WW I the bodies of soldiers, military nurses, etc. killed abroad were brought back to the U.S..

To honor the war dead and missing, the United States maintains 24 permanent military cemeteries overseas in 15 different countries.  These cemeteries help to illustrate the true cost of liberty.  Remember their sacrifice and courage.  A war poem from 1915 for you, "In Flanders Fields" written by Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
      Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark 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.