RICHMOND, Va. -- Richmond National Cemetery on Williamsburg Road serves as the final resting place of soldiers, sailors, airman and Marines killed in action from the Civil War and World War I through the War on Terror. Each gravesite is a solemn reminder of the sacrifices made across the centuries.
But not every soldier who fell on a faraway battlefield returned. Across two oceans more than 200,000 Americans are buried on foreign soil.
Dr. Clay Mountcastle, the Director of the Virginia War Memorial, calls each National Cemetery abroad hallowed ground.
"There is a certain reverence you experience at these cemeteries that makes you understand and appreciate the true cost,” Mountcastle said. “Our National Cemeteries overseas are meticulously maintained. They are beautiful sites. I can’t recall ever having visited something more moving.”
The American Battle Monuments Commission cares for 26 military cemeteries across Europe and the Pacific.
"They are treasures that not only America has established over there but they are treasures we share with the European people," Mountcastle said. "There are literally more than 1,000 Virginians still at rest in Europe at our National Cemeteries. Virginians that never made it home."
Recently this reporter stopped at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery along the Italian coast where 130 Virginians are buried including Richmond’s Clemenceau Givings and brothers William and James Lewis from Northumberland County.
I featured these Virginians in past segments and vowed to visit their graves one day.
Clemenceau, the Jackson Ward native and Tuskegee Airman, was killed when his plane crashed off the coast of Italy in 1944. The married father who served in the 255th Infantry was killed in 1945.
William was buried next to his younger brother James who served in the 7th Infantry and was killed one year earlier.
Of the more than 7,800 service members buried at Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, 25 sets of brothers rest there.
Brigadier General Todd Hubbard with the Virginia National Guard once visited the Normandy American Cemetery in France.
“It is very humbling to go there and see the number of graves that are there,” Brig. General Hubbard said. “To see the number it is just overwhelming.”
Following the wars, many loved ones of the fallen chose to leave their soldiers with their brothers in arms.
“A lot of people have family that are buried there, so I know a lot of Americans will make trips to visit that final resting place,” Hubbard said.
At the Virginia War Memorial, Director Mountcastle said despite the distance, the memory of the fallen buried abroad is never far.
“They are absolutely beautiful places to go reflect. So I’m confident that they will not be forgotten," he said. "The National Cemeteries are wonderful places that see a lot of visitors through the years and their stories are going to live on. We have their name enshrined here and even though they may not be at rest in Virginia we like to think that they are held here in spirit as well. I really feel that these Virginians are at rest and at peace in these beautiful locations.”
If you would like to learn more about the American Battle Monuments Commission and the resting place of service members overseas, click here.
Watch Greg McQuade's stories on CBS 6 and WTVR.com. If you know someone Greg should profile, email him at greg.mcquade@wtvr.com.
