Italy Remembers a Memorial Day for Americans

Two by two they flutter in the breeze.  Thousands upon thousands of them side by side, their bright, cheery colors contrasting starkly against somber green and white backgrounds.  Little flags, one American, one Italian, two of them for each of the 4,402 white crosses planted neatly row by row.  One flag celebrates the country where a fallen soldier was born, the other memorializes where he died.  

Angie and I spent our Memorial Day morning at the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial.  It is located between Florence and our little town of Impruneta, and is the smaller of the two U.S. Military cemeteries in Italy that are the final resting place for many American soldiers killed in Italy during WWII.  Additionally, both cemeteries also have huge memorial tablets to recognize the unrecovered soldiers and airmen Missing In Action, and the sailors either lost at sea or buried at sea during the Italian campaign.

The Florence American Cemetery and Memorial is a beautiful, well kept, well run facility.  It is immediately obvious to any visitor that the American and Italian administration and the American volunteer helpers take great pride in preserving this legacy and keeping the grounds pristine. 

The hour long service was replete with the customary speeches, honor guards, and salutes;

And there was also a sizable contingent attending from the American VFW in Vicenza (west of Venice) who traveled down to represent American Vets currently stationed in or retired and living in Italy; 

However, the real focus of the day was all about the service and sacrifice of the thousands of Americans who died in Italy during WWII. 

Today’s Memorial ceremony was very moving; it was inspiring to see the American flag raised and our National Anthem played on foreign soil, soil that so many Americans fought and died for.  It was also touching so see that the Italians have not forgotten.  They have remembered who set them free from the tyranny of Fascism, and they actively honor them still.

It is estimated almost 30,000 American military personnel died during the Italian campaign of WWII.  So many Americans have sacrificed in service to their county, so many different times in our history, that it is sometimes easy for us to lose track of the incalculable cost of freedom: 

Wars fought by American  Soldiers	When	Soldiers Killed
American Revolutionary War	1775–1783	~25,000
War of 1812	1812–1815	~15,000
Civil War: total	1861–1865	~625,000
World War I	1917–1918	116,516
World War II	1941–1945	405,399
Korean War	1950–1953	36,518
Vietnam War	1955–1975	58,209
Gulf War	1990–1991	294
Iraq War	2003–2011	4487
Afghanistan	2001–present	2,031
Several statistics provided by The Oxford Companion to American Military History
(Oxford University Press)
Gulf-Iraq-Afghanistan statistics provided by DOD