The Bingham County news. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1918-1930, 1921-09-30

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to relatives and friends.
The first offices for the dead We're
usually. performed by the chdpldils
and men of the combat forces. AS
the burial parties in reGimental
sector were composed of mea e he
regiments who were caring Tor their
own comrades, this meant special
attention and the assurance that as
far as possible all received a decent
and a Christian burial.
Immediately before an engage
ment detail Of officers and men
was assigned to the regim entail
chaplain to act as the burial /.
for the regiment. The burial party
led by the chaplain followed closely
behind the attacking batallions. Its
express duty was to collect, identify
and bury the dead, and to properly
mark the graves. Soldiers of Jew
ish faith have the distinguishing de-
| sign of six pointed star built ar
Ound the cross. The work was of
an extremely hazardous nature and
entailed as much personal risk as
the first line batallions, especially
in general attack, when the enemy,
failing to locate front line positions,
deluged back areas with high ex-
plosves and gas. Many chaplains
and others received decorations as
testimony of valor displayed while
under fire on burial party duty.
Small cemeteries were established
near definite land marks such as
roads. houses, clumps of trees, in or
der to simplify subsequent location
of graves. Frequently, heavy shell
fire made it necessary to dig the
grave close to the spot where the
man had fallen. In order to Obvi-
ate possible mistakes strict order
was issued that all removals of
bodies Identification, and reburials
must be done in the presence of at
least one officer Every care was
taken to carefully mark the grave
his identification tags was buried
with the body and the other was
fastened securely to the cross above
! the grave. The chaplain plotted the
location Of each grave on a map,
and an accurate description of prom
inent land marks with their dis
tances and directions was preserved.
! Photographs were made of the graves
when possible.
Many soldiers lost their two al
minimum identification disks, which,
according to regulation should have
been around the neck. The loss of
these disks intensified the difficulty
in identification. In these cases,
however, after every possible means
had been exhausted, the words "Un-
known Soldier, or Unknown Marine,
were printed on the grave and such
records as they had were carefully
| filed in the event of further clues
developing.
On the battle front space was
chosen by American commanding Of
ficers for emergency cemeteries and
the legal formalities with the French
government arranger afterwards.
Every courtesy was shown by the
French in this regard, and tender
ness for the American dead has dis
tinguished the demeanor of the
French people.
After each soldier was buried, an
individual report giving all the
facts of burial was Immediately
made out and forwarded through
various official channels to the
Grave Registration Service in Paris
and Washington where the informa-
ton was carefully indexed for fu-
ture use.
The Paris office of the Graves
Registration Service will he kept
open Indefinitely to facilitate the
visits of relatives to soldier graves.
Interesting details of the work
carried on in the Belleau Woods sec
tor where so many gallant marines
FELL as we'll as hundreds of brave
soldiers of the American army. In
this sector the fighting was long
continued and heavy, and the bur-
ial parties found their task an ex-
tremely difficult one. In the first
place, for more than month, no
living person, no matter what his
mission, was safe above ground
within five miles of the German
lines because of the activity Of en-
envy observers in balloons and other
air craft
The bumper Of troops to hold the
line in that sector was not adequate
and the regiments were spread out
to cover the utmost amount of front
thus widely separating the units Of
the regiments. Yet, despite the al
most impossible task, the burying Of
| the dead was done with the utmost
care and thoroughness and the
proof is shown in the relatively
small percentage Of missing among
our forces. Parties of brave men
would crawl across bullet swept
spaces right up to German machine
guns in order to rescue the wounded
and to bury their comrades. Crosses
would be made out of boughs OF
trees, or the picturesque soldiers