Evening star., 1947-01-26
Let War Dead Rest
Putton's S Widow Urges
Says Gen. Patton Opposed Moving
Bodies From War Graves
Bv Mrs. GEORGE S. Patton,

By Mrs. George 5. Patton, Jr.
Wherever our soldiers are buried over
seas, there is America, and American
cemeteries mark the triumphal march
of our armies through the islands of the
Pacific and from Africa, Sicily and Italy,
through France to the borders of Ger
many. No Americans are buried in any
enemy soil.
The crosses, each with its identifica-
ton tag, stand in long rows guarding the
dead, and on my journey overseas last
June I saw local people everywhere, both
grown-ups and children, putting flowers
on the graves of the men they call "our
liberators."
have seen this picture repeated three
times, in 1921, 1888 and 1916, and I
believe every American who some day
visits grave in one of these cemeteries
will come away feeling "it is completely
right that he should lie there"
This is the judgment of many Of the
bereaved of World War I who have
talked with me after the first poignancy
of their grief subsided.
After the last war I saw the dead
brought back. I watched them being put
into graves on funeral day" at
national cemetery, week after week.
Each of those collins had meant the
bereavement of some family when the
word of death was received, and in that
time of great emotion the relatives had
asked to have the bodies returned.
But on the day of burial 1t was rare
to see family present. Many of them
did not come. think, because the
wound of sorrow had begun to heal, the
meaning of the burial ceremony had
changed for them, and they had begun
to realize that the broken bodies brought
back in sealed caskets bore no relation
to the men they had known and loved.
Our Army graves registration units
under the quartermaster general are
making incredible efforts in all parts
of the world to identify the bodies of
lost Americans, thus ending the strain
of uncertainty in many homes. Our
Government will either bury their bodies
in national cemeteries overseas or send
them home, according to the decision Of
their next of kin.
AS specious comfort to the bereaved
relatives, sending them home Is called
Repatriation; the word is misnomer,
for every American cemetery, wherever
it is, is already American soil, owned
and cared for by the United States Gov
ernment
My husband felt this deeply, and In
1919 he wrote the poem in which he
said:
"Our free souls will be far,
Holding the line in Sunny France
Where we died to win the war"
1t. Gen. Lesley j. McNair, killed in
| Normandy, held the same belief. Mrs.
McNair wrote:
Lesley was a soldier and wanted
to die a soldiers death know he
would want to stay where he is, sur
rounded by the men he trained and
with whom he died. He would not want
his body moved"
| What do most of those graves overseas
hold? Parts of men wrapped in blan-
kets or mattress covers, without cofflns-
gone back to earth because they could
no longer serve their purpose.
Will it comfort you to hear that
your soldier Is being shipped home In
box or an urn to be reburied? What
will come home to you isn't what you
remember and love.
Will it ease your grief, or make you
| happier to know that some young SOL
dier, drafted to serve our country over
seas, is digging up these poor bones?
If the family of the fallen soldier
would find comfort in a permanent,
tangible record near at hand, let them
erect simple monument in the family
cemetery plot, inscribed with the mans
name and record and the place of his
burial overseas. Or this could be added
to the list on family monument
already established.
Thus there would be a lasting me-
mortal at home where it could be seen,
without the gruesome performance of
moving the remains.
And what would your man himself
say If he could speak?
Every good soldier 1 have ever known
wanted to be buried where he fell.
Mine did.
Our dead have earned the right to
rest in peace.
Copyright. 1947)