Looking Back to a Distant War . . .

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In a magazine which came this week here in France I was reading an article about Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' recent large scale production for television of a series of films about World War II in the Pacific islands. Towards the end of the article Mr. Spielberg was quoted as saying something to the effect that remembering these past battles in films could occupy him for the rest of his life. And also that the decision to make the films about the Pacific island battles was partly based on a large number of letters received from veterans, their families, or other sources asking for the stories to be told. I thought I might add a letter on another related topic.
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Dear Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Hanks,
There is only one American veteran alive from World War I (Frank Buckles, aged 109) who could write to you, and even the descendants of the departed from that war may be starting to disappear or forget what they might have known second-hand about the Great War. Of course the millions of men who died in that conflict took their stories to the grave with them. So there are few who might still wish to write to you to ask that their stories be remembered. But I am convinced that there are still some great and inspiring stories which should be rediscovered and told about American involvement in World War I.
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Who could ever forget the opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan", shot in the American Cemetery near the Normandy Beach D-Day landing area from World War II, where 9387 Americans are buried ? But how many people know that the largest American cemetery in Europe is in Romagne sous Montfaucon, or that it is from World War I and holds the graves of 14246 Americans, as well as the names of another 954 men whose bodies were never found ?
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I spent a few days this past fall wandering the area near Verdun looking for traces of World War I. One afternoon I stumbled on the American Cemetery near Romagne sous Montfaucon, and spent a couple of hours exploring the vast park that it is. Why had I never heard of this place ? Why weren't we taught about it in high school ? Walking the seemingly endless rows of white marble crosses I was short of breath, nearly gasping at the enormity of it, the tragedy of lives cut short in firestorms of flying steel and lead. The names of the dead cried out from each cross in silent pain, a name, a state, a military unit, a date of death. Who were these men who died between September 26th and November 11th, 1918, as they drove the Germans back northwards along a line to the west of Verdun ? What actually happened there ? What did the letters they wrote home say ? What did their families and the women they loved experience in those terrible years ?
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I'm hoping you can answer some of these questions in an epic film. If I can be of any service in such an endeavor here in France, it would be an honor.
Sincerely yours,
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The entrance to the cemetery is crowned by stone eagles . . .
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A tree lined alley runs the length of the site, lovely in autumn colors, even on a rainy day . . .
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A plaque near the memorial building lists the American cemeteries in Europe from WWI . . .
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The map of the 1918 Fall campaign between the Meuse River and the Argonne Forest shows that it took from September 26th to October 31st to push the German army back over a distance that I drove that afternoon in half an hour. I can barely begin to imagine the hell they went through over that month of October . . .
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May they rest in peace . . .
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A 2nd lieutenant from Pennsylvania . . .
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The names of the missing were chiselled in stone along the wings of the memorial building . . .
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I'm guessing these were emblems from artwork for various military unit's symbols ? Is it a squirrel ? Some other creature ?
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The crosses seemed to go on forever down the sloping fields . . .
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The inscription over the main door of the memorial says, "Dedicated to the memory of those who died for their country" . . .
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Fallen leaves in the reflecting pool, as numerous as fallen soldiers . . .
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The current Commander in Chief was visible . . .
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The view from the visitor's building and cemetery offices across to the main memorial . . .
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