With an introduction by Jon Voight.
Adopters of Soldiers’ Graves are citizens who choose one or more graves of American soldiers paying tribute to their liberators, as they are called. They choose to remember and never forget them for giving their lives in liberating their country.
Soldiers’ graves have been adopted, informally since 1944, but with more circumstance as Adoption Committees have been formed. These adopters in the surrounding areas of the cemeteries, and also from nearby countries, receive Adoption Certificates. They visit the graves and often place flowers there. Some communicate with family members.
In September 2011, my wife and I attended Adoption Ceremonies at the Henri-Chapelle Cemetery and Ardennes Cemetery in Belgium. We were very much impressed by the ceremonies conducted by Le Briscard, the organization that presides over these Adoption Ceremonies in Belgium.
At the ceremonies in 2011, my wife, Dottie, exclaimed that a documentary should be done to show the people back home in the U.S., and others, what a wonderful tribute this is…so many years after WWII, in remembering our thousands of fallen heroes who lie in these cemeteries.
A documentary was born. The following September 2012, after the ceremonies, this film was produced. It is a tribute to the Adopters!
During WWII my job, with the 607th Graves Registration Company, was to gather and bury the dead. We established temporary cemeteries. Henri-Chapelle was one of seventeen. A permanent one was constructed after the war by the ABMC.