In respecting fallen GI’s, the American government have operated a service for the past 60 years or so where dead soldiers, killed in the First and Second World Wars, would have flowers placed on their graves as a tribute to them in Normandy, France.
However, in these economically challenging times, the US government has shut down its service of placing flowers on graves on Memorial Day, which has left the relatives of more than 10,000 soldiers who gave their lives for their country more than a little dismayed.
One such relative, Dee Elliott, whose father, Frank, was killed on D-Day , spoke about the “flower fund” which has been operated by the American Battle Monuments Commission since the 1950’s, telling reporters she is very upset her father’s grave will no longer get flowers.
In announcing the fact that the Commission will stop arranging flowers abroad for fallen soldiers, spokesman Tim Nosal said, “We, the American Battle Monuments Commission, will no longer be processing the orders. We’re asking the public to go directly to florists to order the flowers. That takes the government out of the middle.”
The fund was a vital one for people who lost relatives in the wars, which enabled people to send a check to the Commission, which would go ahead and purchase and place flowers on the grave and send a photograph of the grave and flowers back to the bereaved relative.
As explained, from the commission’s point of view, “It was a very good thing at the time. But today’s world is very different.”
In explaining why the decision has been made, Nosal added, “One is to get us out of the process of ordering, which is something that we shouldn’t have been doing anyway. We’ve been doing it since the ’50s, just because. It’s incredibly time consuming. Number two, the agency is changing, and we need to put more effort into telling the stories of the people we honor in our cemeteries overseas.”
Nosal, who will not curry much favor with relatives of GI’s killed abroad, said, “There was no mandate to do it. We receive no funding to operate it.”
Dee Elliot expressed her dismay at the decision, telling reporters, “We feel like the government should continue to be an intermediary for us. It’s the least, littlest thing they could still do for us. It’s like a connection with the government that our fathers died for.”
[Image credit: history.com]
