My First Visit to Manila American Cemetery
My home state of Indiana had always been meaningful but today the letters on the white crosses seemed bolder
than ever. I stood amongst beautifully manicured graves of American servicemen at the Manila
American Cemetery in the Philippines. I found it difficult to swallow. My teeth clenched and a gut-wrenching
realization overwhelmed my thoughts as the visit to the transformed from that of a visitor to that of a fellow soldier,
brother and neighbor. I was humbled as I gazed across the acres and acres of crosses.
I focused my camera on a nearby cross, a grave of a young man from Ohio.
The thought hit me. I wondered if I could unite one of these photographs with a family member back in America. At that moment the project began. To date our project
has located 204 Indiana families of World War II servicemen
killed in this region and we have presented them with free photographs.
The fantastic help of Indiana librarians, journalists, historians, genealogy hobbyists and wonderful volunteers
across Indiana and America have teamed up and are discovering new families everyday that have never seen the graves.
We send them free photographs including the "Tablets of the Missing" via email along with the information we have gathered
about each serviceman. Many are thrilled to view them for the first time and others never knew there were graves
for their loved ones. We are collecting information about their lives and especially enjoy receiving scanned photographs of
the men in their military uniforms. Join our fun today and help us salute the men and the families from Indiana that gave the supreme sacrifice defending freedom. God Bless the families of these
young Hoosier heroes!
County
Servicemen List - We need your help to find these families. Send a note to us today and request the names of
the soldiers and sailors from your county in Indiana. We
will send it to you in Microsoft Excel, PDF, or HTML format.
