American War Memorials Overseas facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
American War Memorials Overseas

AWMO Logo
Founded	July 2008
Founder	Lillian A. Pfluke
Type	501 (c) (3) corporation
Location	Wilmington, Delaware Paris, France
Revenue	Individual contributions, corporate contributions, and private foundation grants
Website	U.S. War Memorials

American War Memorials Overseas (AWMO) is a group that helps find, share, and protect special places called War Memorials. These memorials honor Americans who served in wars outside the United States. AWMO started in 2008. It is a non-profit group, which means it doesn't make money for owners. Instead, it uses all its funds to help its cause. AWMO relies completely on donations to do its important work.

What AWMO Does (Mission)

War Memorials help us remember important parts of our history. Memorials overseas that honor Americans show how much the U.S. has been involved around the world. American War Memorials Overseas works to find, share, and protect these memorials. They focus on those not supported by governments. This helps make sure these monuments stay a part of local communities forever.

AWMO works with other groups at different levels. They team up with international, national, and local organizations. This helps protect the future of war memorials honoring Americans overseas. They make sure these sites keep their historical meaning.

The U.S. federal government has a group called the American Battle Monuments Commission. This group takes care of 24 cemeteries and 25 memorials overseas. But they don't have the power or money to look after thousands of other sites. These other sites also honor Americans worldwide.

American War Memorials Overseas has several goals for these other important sites:

• Find and Share Information: They record where non-government war memorials are located. Then, they share this information with everyone.
• Encourage Visits: They want people to visit these historical places. This helps people learn about the past.
• Promote the American Flag: They encourage local groups to fly the American flag at private war memorials.
• Check on Memorials: They keep an eye on how the memorials are doing. They encourage people to take care of them.
• Offer Expert Help: They give advice to groups working on memorial projects. They also help organize maintenance for these sites.
• Build Local Responsibility: They work with communities to encourage them to take care of their own memorials. They also help them understand when repairs are needed.
• Increase Awareness: They help people learn more about war memorial history. They also raise awareness about how to protect these sites.

These goals are shared in a magazine called Army Magazine. AWMO's main goal is to find and record all war memorials honoring Americans outside the U.S. Most importantly, they want to make sure these memorials last forever. AWMO works with other groups to fix memorials that are damaged. They also help protect the future of these important sites.

Finding and Recording Memorials (Documentation)

Thousands of American war memorials are found all over the world. An American war memorial overseas is any lasting object placed in another country. It remembers Americans who were part of or affected by a conflict there.

These memorials can be put up by:

• Military groups or veterans to remember their friends who died.
• Family members to honor loved ones or mark where they fell.
• Local groups to recall history or thank their liberators.
• Host countries as an official thank you to the U.S. and its citizens.

Often, neither the U.S. government nor local governments are responsible for these sites. Many have been forgotten over time. AWMO finds and records these memorials. They put the information into an online database. This database helps people search for these sites. It includes isolated burial sites, monuments, and museums.

More than a thousand Americans who died in wars are buried in churchyards, foreign cemeteries, or in the fields where they fell. These gravesites are often not cared for or recorded. AWMO works to find, record, and protect these scattered burials.

In almost every place where Americans have fought overseas, there are many non-federal monuments. These are in addition to the 25 federal monuments. These sites are often not well-known or cared for. There are also simple markers and plaques. These show where specific American actions happened on battlefields. This includes where American divisions advanced or where an aircraft crashed. It also marks the exact spot where a service member was killed. AWMO works to find, record, and protect these monuments, markers, and plaques.

Who Helps (Board of Directors)

This non-profit group runs only with the help of volunteers.

• Founder: Lillian A. Pfluke
• Dr. Susan Kellett-Forsyth
• Peter F. Herrly
• Christine Murakami

See also

• American Battle Monuments Commission
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• Register of Culturally Significant Property