A snowy winter day on a road trip to Luxembourg City. Seeing that my entire career was serving with the U.S. Army, I wanted to see the famous Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial. It was a somber experience.
(Cemetery Gate)
On 29 December 1944, a temporary military cemetery was built by the U.S. 3rd Army and the official opening was made on July 4th, 1960. In the beginning about 8,412 military personnel were buried here, but after a while 5,050 of them were transferred to the United States. In 1948 the remains of approximately 1,700 military personnel that were buried in the neighborhood of Longuyon in France and Foy in Belgium were transferred to this cemetery bringing the total of graves to 5,076.
(Memorial)
Under a U.S.–Luxembourg treaty signed in 1951 the U.S. government was granted free use in perpetuity of the 50.5 acres of land covered by the cemetery without charge or taxation.
Twenty-two sets of brothers are buried here. Originally the grave markers were made of wood, but later replaced with white marble and attached to six miles of concrete beams under the cemetery grounds.
(Grave of General George Patton)
The most visited grave is that of General George S. Patton, commander of the Third Army who died at the Heidelberg Military Hospital after complications from a vehicular accident that left him paralyzed. Patton requested to be buried with his men and his original grave was amongst all the other graves, but heavy visitor traffic around his grave caused disturbed earth. His remains and grave were then moved to the front of the cemetery.
The cemetery is open daily to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except December 25 and January 1. It is open on host country holidays. The cemetery is located in Hamm, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.
