Latest news with #ABMC
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
VA to Expand Online Memorial Website to Include Veterans Buried Overseas
The Department of Veterans Affairs has added more than 210,000 veterans to its online memorial project for U.S. veterans, including pages for Americans buried in cemeteries overseas. Ahead of Memorial Day, the VA announced it has expanded its Veterans Legacy Memorial website to include those interred at locations overseen by the American Battle Monuments Commission, the federal agency that manages U.S. military burial sites in Europe, the United Kingdom, Africa, Asia and elsewhere. "The brave Americans resting in American Battle Monuments Commission cemeteries and whose names are inscribed on ABMC memorials around the world sacrificed their lives to liberate allied countries and to protect our nation's interests," Acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Ronald Walters said in a statement last week. "It's our honor to preserve their legacies." Read Next: Pentagon Will Use Health Screenings, Commanders to Ferret Out Trans Troops for Separations The VA launched the Veterans Legacy Memorial website in 2019 to highlight former service members buried at national cemeteries, giving loved ones the chance to tell their veterans' stories by adding service records, remembrances, photos, historical documents and more to their personal pages. The program later was expanded to include VA grant-funded cemeteries, those managed by the Department of Defense, U.S. Park Service cemeteries and private cemeteries where veterans have received a VA-provided grave marker since 1996. The project now includes more than 10 million pages, with more than 200,000 submissions made to veterans pages, according to the VA. Earlier this year, the VA announced that it will allow veterans to build their own VLM pages, uploading images, autobiographies, military achievements and life milestones -- anything they would want someone to know about them -- before they die. To use this VLM feature, known as "Your Life, Your Story," veterans must be eligible for burial in a national cemetery and have received pre-approval by the VA. They then will be able to log into a secure area of the site to create their pages; the content will go live once the veteran passes away and the VA approves their family's request for burial or other memorial benefit. VA officials have said the next goal for the VLM is to add the names of veterans who received VA-issued grave markers before 1996. The ABMC has managed overseas veteran graves since 1934, when President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order mandating that the agency oversee eight military cemeteries in Europe. It currently administers 26 American cemeteries overseas, caring for more than 124,000 graves and memorials dedicated to roughly 94,000 who are missing in action, lost or buried at sea. "We are proud to be a part of this partnership, which adds new resources to honor our nation's veterans from all wars and brings their stories to those who aren't able to visit our ABMC sites overseas," ABMC Acting Secretary Robert Dalessandro said in a news release last week. Related: This Memorial Day, VA Adds More than 300,000 Veterans to its Legacy Memorial Project Site
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
VA's online legacy project adds names of 210,000 vets lost overseas
As the nation celebrates the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, Veterans Affairs officials have added about 210,000 names of veterans killed or lost overseas — including about 93,000 WWII veterans — to the department's expanding online memorial project. The Veterans Legacy Memorial was launched in 2019 and creates websites recognizing the lives of deceased veterans, allowing relatives to update the online memorials with details for their service, post-military work and family history. The scope of the project now includes more than 10 million names and has roughly doubled in the last two years, with the addition of millions of veterans buried in private cemeteries worldwide to existing lists of individuals interred at VA and military sites. Trump proclaims Thursday as day for US to celebrate victory in WWII The expansion announced this week includes names from 26 overseas cemeteries and memorials administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission. ABMC acting Secretary Robert Dalessandro said in a statement that the Veterans Legacy Project update 'adds new resources to honor our nation's veterans from all wars and brings their stories to those who aren't able to visit our sites overseas.' President Donald Trump this week issued a proclamation recognizing May 8 as the 80th anniversary of the end of European hostilities in that conflict. In addition to the approximately 93,000 WWII veterans added to the veterans project, about 94,000 other names added to the list are of Americans missing in action overseas or buried at sea. Those individuals are honored in a series of overseas memorials overseen by the monuments commission. 'The brave Americans resting in ABMC cemeteries and whose names are inscribed on memorials around the world sacrificed their lives to liberate allied countries and to protect our nation's interests,' said acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Ronald Walters in a statement. 'It's our honor to preserve their legacies.' Officials in recent months have also updated the legacy project to allow veterans to provide details of their life and service before they pass away. Information on the 'Your Story, Your Legacy' effort is available on the project's website.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Texas soldier accounted for from World War II
Feb. 28—WASHINGTON — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Friday that U.S. Army Cpl. Ernest H. Ulrich, 26, of China, Texas, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for Oct. 9, 2024. Ulrich's family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared, a news release said. In late 1941, Ulrich was a member of Medical Department, 200th Coast Artillery Regiment in the Philippines during World War II, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942. Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and interned at POW camps. Ulrich was among those reported captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese. They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then held at the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war. According to prison camp and other historical records, Ulrich died Nov. 22, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 807. Following the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) personnel exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery and relocated the remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. In 1947, the AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them. Three sets of remains from Common Grave 807 were identified, but the rest were declared unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) as Unknowns. In late 2018, DPAA exhumed the remains of nine Unknowns associated with Common Grave 807 and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. To identify Ulrich's remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used Y-chromosome DNA analysis. Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, Ulrich's grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). Ulrich will be buried in Palo Alto, California, on a date to be determined. For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490. DPAA is grateful to the ABMC and the United States Army for their partnership in this mission. For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving their country, visit the DPAA website at or on social media at or Read Ulrich's initial ID announcement here: Ulrich.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
CCTC teacher selected for Silent Heroes webinar series
Feb. 17—CHESAPEAKE — A Collins Career Technical Center teacher has been selected as part of a Researching Silent Heroes webinar series, in coordination with the American Battle Monuments Commission. Darla Carpenter was chosen for her research of World War I soldier Pvt. Curtis Crawford Bryant of the U.S. Army. Bryant, Ohio, is buried at Meuse Argonne American Cemetery in France. Carpenter was one of the 55 educators selected for the series, a cost-free learning opportunity, where they receive hands-on training to research and create a profile for a Silent Hero, an individual who served in the United States military. The men and women researched for this webinar series died during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, or the Vietnam War and are buried or memorialized in an American military cemetery cared for by the ABMC. From now until March, teachers meet monthly with both a historian and a research specialist to set their Silent Heroes into historical context and learn strategies to research their lives. They discuss effective research strategies and discuss how to deal with roadblocks that historical research creates, such as missing or incomplete records, alternate spellings, or reconciling memories with the historical record. When the teachers complete their research in April, they will write a profile for NHD's Silent Heroes website for publication in late spring/summer. This work will be shared with the American Battle Monuments Commission for future use in their educational materials. "National History Day's Researching Silent Heroes program is essential to our work to improve the teaching and learning of history," Cathy Gorn, Ph.D., executive director of National History Day, said. "Thanks to ABMC, teachers across the country and around the world get to dive into primary source research about the lives of service members from twentieth century conflicts. I can't wait to read the impactful profiles the teachers will write about these fallen service members' lives." The 55 teachers selected for this program represent 32 states and two Department of Defense schools overseas. Their Silent Heroes are buried or memorialized at 17 ABMC Cemeteries.
