Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
STILL OF SERVICE
U.S. Marines helped allies secure victory at Belleau Wood
Frank Steranza, a U.S. Navy veteran who served from 1979-'83, shows a Scout from Troop 395 how to handle the flag during a brief memorial service at the Boynton Memorial Park on Sunday. The event's cancellation due to weather didn't stop a few veterans and the troop from honoring the war dead.
BELLEAU, France — High-ranking military officials from the United States, France and Germany on Sunday took part in Memorial Day ceremonies at an American cemetery in France to mark the centennial of the Battle of Belleau Wood, a turning point in World War I and a key moment in U.S. Marine Corps history.
The ceremony at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in the village of Belleau featured speeches by Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller and other military officials. It also included prayers, wreath laying, poem readings and the national anthems of the three countries.
More than 5,000 people attended the event to commemorate the fierce, month-long battle, which is considered the first major engagement of U.S. troops in the war. Belleau Wood, where Marines helped Allied forces secure victory, also helped to establish the prestige and reputation for bravery of the Marine Corps overseas.
Most of the 2,289 American soldiers, including 474 Marines, buried in the Belleau cemetery died in the French northern AisneMarne region in 1918. More than a thousand other servicemen are memorialized and honored by name on Walls of the Missing.
The June 1918 battle in and outside Belleau Wood and the decisive engagement of the U.S. forces became a defining moment in WWI by containing a break by German troops through the Western Front and foiling their push toward Paris.
After the hostilities of World War I ended with the Armistice on Nov 11, 1918, many American families faced the decision of whether to bring their dead home or to have them buried where they fell.
Despite the distance and the decades that have passed, the service members still are honored each year for Memorial Day. But the task of remembering them has fallen after 100 years to grandchildren or distant relatives.
Mark Shively and his wife, Linda, from Beaverton, Ore., also had a personal reason to be at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery. They crossed the United States and the Atlantic Ocean to spend Memorial Day with the officer who left a lasting impression on Shively’s grandfather.
“We’ve been talking about it for a couple of years, to come and visit France, to retrace his footsteps,” Shively said. “We wanted to lay flowers here to remember (my grandfather’s) commander. He really loved this man.”
Shively’s grandfather, Marine Corps Pvt. Norman Alfred Roberts, fought in the Battle of Belleau Wood in June 1918. After being wounded a second time, Roberts was sent home after the Armistice.
His unit commander, Marine Corps Lt. Carleton Burr, was killed in action in July 1918, after Belleau Wood.. “My grandfather admired him very much,” Shively said.