American soldiers from the First World War commemorated in Waregem for the 100th time

“We celebrate the ‘Memorial Day Ceremony’ every year. But this year, my agency the American Battle Monuments Commission was founded in 1923. So we’re celebrating the 100th anniversary of the agency in honor of the soldiers buried here,” says Richard Arseneault of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

This ceremony is therefore organized every year. This year there is a novelty, for the first time the ceremony will be filmed by cameras and broadcast online. “We are broadcasting this live for the first time. This way people from outside the cemetery, so Belgium or even the United States, can see the relevance of this historic event. Everyone can participate and everyone can be reminded of how important this is,” says Charles Djou of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

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There are flowers and flags on the graves themselves. They were placed there by the adoptive parents of such a grave. They pay for such a grave and also contact the American family.

The entire ceremony is accompanied by American and Belgian soldiers. They had a hard time standing up in the persistent sun for about an hour and a half. A soldier had a hard time and had to be taken care of by the Red Cross.