Visited the cemetery to locate my great uncle's grave. My father was named after his deceased uncle being the eldest son of the deceased uncle's brother My father had a very unusual first name "Add". Seeing my father's name on my great uncle's grave stone was very emotional. We visited in a Sunday and had the cemetery to ourselves. It is so very peaceful it is hard to imagine the horrors these soldiers went through. My great uncle was a 19 year old from Kentucky. I have been to the American cemetery in Normandy and it is beautifully Aisne-Marie. Truly gives you such a peaceful and emotional moment.

The Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, at the site of Battle of Belleau Wood during World War I, does not attract the number of American visitors as the nearby Chateau Thierry Memorial and Cemetery or the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach in Normandy. For U.S. Marines, however, it is a pilgrimage destination. A fellow Marine and I (long past our active duty prime) and our wives planned to visit Belleau Wood on 1 June, in conjunction with the 100 year anniversary of the 1918 battle. The cemetery is only 40 miles east of Paris. In 1918 this was the front line of the Western Front. In preparation for this trip we had contacted the Cemetery Superintendent. He greeted us upon our arrival. He congratulated us on our foresight not to have visited for the Memorial Day celebration when 8,000 people showed up for the ceremonies. The grounds are well maintained by the U.S. federal government. The Superintendent is in fact an American citizen and a federal employee. After walking among the grave markers, located at the point of the last German resistance, we drove down the hill into the town of Belleau. It is the site of the destroyed chateau that owned the hunting preserve we now call Belleau Wood. In the town is a newly opened museum dedicated to those who fought at Belleau Wood and the town’s people who struggled to endure the war. On the grounds of the old chateau is the Bulldog fountain. It is said that Marines who drink from this fountain add ten years to their life expectancy. The fountain is in a gated section of the chateau’s ruins. The information desk at the museum has the key. We then followed the driving tour of the battlefield much of which has been reclaimed by local town’s people and farmers. The wheat field, however, that Marines crossed under relentless German machine gun fire still exists as it did in 1918. Growing at the edges of these fields are the ever present red poppies that have become a symbol of WWI. The drive takes you through Belleau Wood itself and to the Marine Monument. Along the way are remnants of the battle; machine gun emplacements, trenches and artillery positions. The route also takes sightseers through the town of Bouresches. This was a village captured in the early, confused fighting of this three week battle. Given more time I would have found the local cafe for lunch and a self-guided walking tour. Next time. This was the first combat action by American ground forces in the war. The Marines where moved hurriedly to the front to thwart a major German offensive. If the Marines had failed to seize Belleau Wood, and thus to stop the German advance, there was little to keep the Imperial German Army out of Paris. The fall of Paris would have radically changed the outcome of the war to end all wars. Oo-rah Devil Dogs! (Nickname given by German soldiers after Belleau Wood.)