Today is Memorial Day, a holiday that marks the beginning of the busy summer season for many Alaskans. People will be hosting barbeques or perhaps taking advantage of the many Memorial Day sales, but there is a significance to this day that often gets overlooked. This holiday was first set aside after the Civil War as a day to remember our fallen dead at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The holiday then evolved after the First World War to honor all Americans who have died in military service.
My wife and I have tried to pass on to our children respect and honor for our fallen service members, and we have developed a tradition for Memorial Day: we watch a movie with them that tells a story from America’s great military history.
Tonight, we are going to watch “Twelve O’Clock High,” which tells the story of the Eighth Air Force in World War II. If you haven’t seen this movie before, I highly recommend watching it. It accurately portrays the bravery and heroism of the air crews flying bombers over Nazi Germany early in the Second World War. The bravery of these men cannot be overstated. The Eighth Air Force suffered the highest rate of deaths and injuries of any military unit in the war, with over 47,000 casualties. At the start of the war, 2/3 of men in the Eighth Air Force were expected to die or be wounded in combat before the war was over.
When they were killed, these aviators were buried at a cemetery located at the University of Cambridge in England. This location was chosen because it was near most of the airfields used by the Eighth Air Force. After the war, out of respect for the sacrifice made by our country’s military members, it was donated to the United States and is the only American military cemetery in Great Britain. Now known as the Cambridge American Military Cemetery and Memorial, it is often referred to by locals as the aviators’ cemetery. Beside the graves, the memorial also includes a 500’ wall with the names of every American airman who was missing in action; about 4,300 American aviators in total.
The number of Eighth Air Force personnel who were unaccounted for after the war might surprise some people, but the number of American MIAs has continued to grow with every conflict our country has been in since. Today, there are over 81,000 American military members still officially listed as MIA.
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Fortunately, historian Mark Noah is trying to do something about that. He is the founder and executive director of an organization called History Flight, which travels to remote locations around the world trying to find the remains of American MIAs from all wars, identifying who they were, and then returning them to this country for proper burial. History Flight is a non-profit organization that is supported by donations. If you wish to help their mission, you can find a donation link on their website.
On this holiday, enjoy your barbecue, but also take a somber moment to remember our fallen and share the story of their sacrifice with your kids or family members. As President Lincoln said in his speech after the battle at Gettysburg, “the honored dead have given their last full measure of devotion in the service of their nation.” They paid with their lives for the freedoms we enjoy today and deserve to be honored, both by us and by future generations.
The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.
