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Where They Fell<br />
By: Chuck Dean / Vet 2 Vet<br />
My good friends and neighbors, Ron and<br />
Earlene, took a vacation to Italy, and<br />
came across something unexpected...a beautiful<br />
cemetery designated for our fallen American military. Over 4,000<br />
soldiers lay in a lovely setting just outside of Florence. These men gave<br />
their lives to stop the enemies of freedom during the World War II<br />
Mediterranean campaign, and their remains stayed in Italy.<br />
When it comes to overseas burial grounds for our fallen Americans,<br />
we usually think only of Normandy because of its pivotal significance<br />
in WWII. However, when Earlene sent me a photo of them after placing<br />
a Michigan State flag on the grave of a young officer, Carl Giddings, a<br />
heroic Silver Star recipient from the 91 st Infantry at an Italy cemetery<br />
I did a second take.<br />
Suddenly I realized there was another world that I had not considered<br />
- the world of the thousands of veterans that never made it home.<br />
Back in those days, those killed in action were buried where they<br />
went down. In WWII alone some 350,000 Americans gave their lives in<br />
the fight for freedom.<br />
Our government had no means to bring the remains home so<br />
they were buried on the spot. It wasn’t until the Korean War that we<br />
attempted to bring every KIA home for families to honor with a burial<br />
of their choice. By the time Vietnam came along, every deceased warrior<br />
was expediently 9749_NVHL_<strong>Vegas</strong><strong>Voice</strong>Ad_NOV-DEC.pdf transported back to the U.S. 1 10/15/<strong>18</strong> 5:56 PM<br />
It has been discovered<br />
that across 10 countries,<br />
more than 130,000<br />
Americans are buried and<br />
another 124,000 missing<br />
in action. They are mostly<br />
casualties of the world wars.<br />
Interestingly, while<br />
researching a book<br />
about one of the first<br />
frigates in the U.S. Navy,<br />
author Chris Dickon even<br />
stumbled upon a burial<br />
site in Canada where 200<br />
American casualties from<br />
the War of <strong>18</strong>12 have been buried, and apparently, forgotten.<br />
So, with this in mind for Veterans Day, it is a good time to remember<br />
those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and never made it home for<br />
burial. I thank all veterans for their service on this time of tribute and<br />
respect.<br />
Chuck Dean served as an Army paratrooper in Vietnam and<br />
through that experience was led to address the many transitional<br />
issues veterans struggle with. He is the author of several important<br />
books for veterans. All can be found on Amazon at: http://www.<br />
amazon.com/author/chuckdeanbooks<br />
24<br />
November 20<strong>18</strong>
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