30:24
As we celebrate Memorial Day, we at Forgotten History would like to remind our viewers that it is just not another holiday free of work, school, and backyard barbecues. Many people do not understand the solemn significance of Memorial Day, which began as Decoration Day after the Civil War, where the graves of the dead were cared for and flowers placed in memory of those lost. The one government department that has the greatest responsibility for handling and honoring our war dead is the American Battle Monuments Commission or ABMC.
Most people have never heard of this organization and do not know what they do. The ABMC does two things at once. It honors America's fallen and manages their memorials and graveyards around the world. Let's examine the organization and why it is important. What is the American Battle Monuments Commission? How long has it been established? What does it do? Hello, I'm Colin Heaton, former history professor, Army and Marine Corps veteran, and welcome to this episode of Forgotten History. The beginning of the toughest 26 days in Marine Corps history with conflict in our armed forces. 36th president of the United States died this afternoon.
Tell them there children and women in here to call it off. Most Americans are aware of Arlington National Cemetery, the most sacred burial place in the nation where many of our honored war heroes and even a president are buried. The American Battle Monuments Commission or ABMC was created in 1923 after World War I. On paper, its mission was simple. Honor American soldiers buried overseas and build monuments to the battles they fought. In effect, the commission created the visual language of American overseas remembrance. white marble headstones, formal landscaping chapels, battle monuments, and a permanent promise that these graves would be maintained in perpetuity. But in reality, the ABMC did something much
bigger. It helped to decide how America would remember war. At first, the commission focused on commemorating the American expeditionary forces in Europe. General John J. Persing became its defining early figure. And under his influence, the ABMC didn't just mark grave sites. It created grand permanent memorial landscapes, white headstones, chapels, heroic inscriptions, and carefully planned grounds that turned brutal battlefields into places of order and reverence. On March 4th, 1923, President Warren G. Harding signed the legislation establishing the ABMC. Its first job was not the vast cemetery system people associate with it now. It was originally
tasked with building monuments honoring the American expeditionary forces that fought in Europe. The ABMC's identity was strongly shaped by General of the Army's John J. Persing. Harding appointed Persing to the new commission in 1923 and he was elected its chairman by the other commissioners. He remained chairman until his death in 1948. Persian gave the agency both prestige and a moral frame. Overseas cemeteries were not to be treated as ordinary burial grounds, but as enduring national shrines. The commission still quotes his line that time will not dim the glory of their deeds. By the 1930s, the ABMC's role expanded from building
monuments to actually managing and maintaining America's overseas military cemeteries. Then in 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt transferred responsibility for managing and maintaining those cemeteries from the War Department to the ABMC. That was the real pivotal point. The commission stopped being just a monument building body and became the long-term custodian of America's overseas military cemeteries. After World War II, that role exploded. The commission became the caretaker of permanent American cemeteries across North Africa, Europe, at places in England and France, such as Normandy, and the Ardan in Belgium, Holland,
Luxembourg, and Italy, and the Pacific regions, such as Guam and the Philippines. But here's the part people usually skip. The ABMC wasn't just honoring the dead. It was also shaping national memory. The US Army had established hundreds of temporary burial grounds during the war. In 1947, the Secretary of the Army and the ABMC selected 14 overseas sites to become permanent American cemeteries. Those sites were chosen to reflect the path of US military operations. And once the graves registration service completed the internments, the cemeteries were turned over to the ABMC.
This is why so many ABMC cemeteries sit at places like Normandy, the Arden, Manila, and North Africa. They were meant to anchor memory to the geography of the fighting itself. A central part of this history is what happened to the dead themselves. For both World War I and World War II, US law gave the next of kin a choice. Either permanent burial in an American military cemetery overseas or repatriation to the United States. The War Department's graves registration service handled those dispositions.
The ABMC's cemeteries therefore became not accidental burial grounds, but carefully planned memorial landscapes built around family decisions, military records, and host nations agreements granting the land in perpetuity. In full disclosure, I, your humble narrator's maternal grandfather, was killed in action in 1944 and interurred in Luxembourg. The family had his remains brought back home for burial in the family plot in 1951. These cemeteries and monuments told a story of sacrifice, nobility, and American purpose. The chaos of war was recast into symmetrical and solemn beauty. The dead were remembered, yes, but they were also folded into a cleaner, more heroic version of history.
That matters because memorials are never neutral. An ABMC cemetery on foreign soil is not just a burial ground. It is a marker of where American power reached, where Americans fought, and where the United States chose to leave a permanent sacred footprint. It also is a reminder to the people of those countries just how expensive their freedom was to achieve. So, the ABMC has always done two things at once. It preserves the memory of America's war dead, and it teaches future generations how to remember them. That memory is real, powerful, and moving. But it is also curated. It honors sacrifice while often leaving the larger political mess of war outside the frame.
Some memorials it established in Washington DC, including the American Expeditionary Forces Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the World War II Memorial, are now administered by the National Park Service, not the ABMC. That is one of the quirks in its history. The commission helped create parts of America's National Memory Architecture, even when it no longer runs those sites itself. In the modern era, the ABMC has grown from a postWorld War I agency into the federal guardian of American military remembrance overseas. According to the commission, it now maintains 26 permanent American military cemeteries, 31 federal memorials, monuments, and markers in 17 countries, plus four memorials in the
United States. It says more than 200,000 fallen service members are buried or memorialized at its sites. The current mission is broader than simple maintenance, preservation, public education, burial search services, research access, and interpretation for visitors and descendants. But the ABMC had its ups and downs as many previous secretaries who are appointed by the president rarely if ever traveled overseas to meet with ABMC staff in those locations who work in conjunction with our embassies and foreign nationals who actually maintain those graves and memorials. One notable recent milestone was during the first Trump administration when retired Army Major General William M.
Matz Jr. was appointed as the ABMC Secretary. He traveled to all of the 26 locations, met with foreign dignitaries, reestablished a personal relationship with those entrusted to maintain those sites, and organized international celebrations such as the D-Day celebration in 2019. It was under Mattz's guidance that changes were made to the congressional money method and money was approved to repair and refurbish many of the aging and dilapidated memorials and monuments. In fact, it was Mattz who managed to acquire the Martyan memorial honoring the 77,000 killed and wounded during the Battle of the Bulge from the Belgian government. It is now called the Battle of the Bulge Memorial and under ABMC administration.
Another milestone was that the commission marked its centennial in 2023. And in March 2026, it launched an online catalog giving virtual access to historic photos, blueprints, furniture, art, and other materials from its collections. So, the ABMC is no longer just a caretaker of marble crosses, and battle monuments. It is also becoming a digital steward of the historical record behind them. Put bluntly, the ABMC exists because the United States decided that the memory of its war dead overseas should not be left to improvisation, local politics, or the slow rot of bureaucracy. It was born from World War I, transformed by World
War II, and today functions as the permanent keeper of America's overseas military shrines. William Matz made drastic and revolutionary changes to how American war dead are memorialized and cared for. For Mattz himself, a Vietnam veteran and distinguished service cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart recipient, it was perhaps more personal for him. He led men into combat, and he saw many of them killed and wounded alongside himself. For Matt, it was a sacred duty. His efforts were heralded by American politicians from both parties and by the various foreign heads of state with whom he came to know and work closely with. Match died on February 21st, 2026 and is considered by
many to have been the most effective and influential secretary of the ABMC in his entire history. And I am very honored to have called him a friend. One of Mattz's closest friends, retired Marine Corps Major General James E. Livingston, himself a Medal of Honor recipient from Vietnam, had this to say about him. Bill Matz, whom I knew, was part of the veterans group that studied the VA years ago and was a real pleasure to work with. He was a really fabulous man in every way and it was a remarkable opportunity to meet and get to know him.
His sense of caring about vets and running the activities supporting vets. The thing that I really want to amplify is caring about the various locations around the world where our great servicemen are buried in places where we fought wars like the Philippines and Europe and various locations. and he was just so concerned about all locations representing the best of America. And I want to commend Bill and remember Bill for what he did in taking care of those veterans who were deceased and lost their lives on foreign battlefields. And Bill always amplified the fact that the only thing we asked for is in terms of those situations was a place to bury our dead with dignity. and Bill really
worked at making sure that the places remained dignified and represented the best values of this country. So we say goodbye to Bill and say goodbye to his contributions and his legacy and remember him as one of the greatest soldiers I have ever known. Simpify to Bill and God bless his memory. The ABMC is there to remind us all of what Memorial Day really means. We remember the man who made the greatest changes to honoring our war dead buried overseas. May his legacy continue. Thank you for watching this episode of Forgotten History. If you liked what you saw, please click like, share, and subscribe. And if you would like to assist with the everinccreasing cost of production, please consider becoming a
channel member and joining our Patreon page.
