Looking for fallen veterans of World War II

I sent this e-mail to all Montanan local newspapers I could find by ways of the Internet and hope that you can be of help with the following.

I am a citizen of the Netherlands, and we have an American cemetery near the city of Maastricht, in the outermost south of this country, which was built in the late months of World War II in 1944. The southeastern part of the Netherlands was liberated by Americans, who were the first to enter our occupied country and liberated Maastricht on Sept. 14, 1944.

A few weeks later, a captain of the 611 Graves Registration Company arranged with the mayor of the little town of Margraten for 74 acres of land. With the oncoming attacks on the last German defenses, many casualties were anticipated, which came true soon enough with the Battle of the Bulge in December.

After the war ended in 1945, the American Battle Monuments Comission took the care of building the cemetery as we know it now on soil donated by the Dutch government to the American people forever.

Starting out with approximately 18,000 men buried here, many fallen were repatriated during the following years, and eventually this cemetery became the final resting place for 8,301 servicemen and 1,722 names on the Walls of the Missing of men who were never found, or identified or who were lost at sea. The ABMC supervises 12 cemeteries like this in Western Europe. They commemorate the service and sacrifice of Americans in the worldwide battle for a free world — the commemoration of which now sees it’s seventiest anniversary.

The people living in the vicinity of Margraten and the town itself (of which the male citizens had helped with the burials) were so grateful for these guys and respectful for their fallen comrades that they started to tend the graves already before the war got to an end in 1945. And so a tradition was born right in the first year of freedom to adopt a grave and care for it as a stand-in for the family living far away. On the first Memorial Day after VE day on May 8, 1945, all graves — then almost 18,000 — had flowers, and the next year they all were adopted.

That was 70 years ago. The spontanous action evolved over the years into a foundation overseeing the administration and assigning of graves and names. All remaining graves stayed adopted year after year resulting in an ever growing waiting list of people waiting for a grave to adopt because these adopted graved are passed on within the family.

So some years ago, the foundation had the brainwave to open up the names on the Walls of the Missing for adoption. By now, more than a thousand names of the total 1,722 names also got an adoptant.

The duty you take up as an adoptant is you visit the grave or name several times per year to lay flowers and try to establish contact with relatives, to let them know that their loved one is taken care of and honored.

So I adopted the name of a Montanan serviceman, not by accident because I had asked for that, if possible. I fell in love with your state 20 years ago, and ever since going back feels like coming home.

My request was honored. I located the relatives of my adoptee, visited several times and met with many relatives. And now, on the 70th anniversary of the Adoption Foundation, which started originally as a spontaneous initiative of grateful citizens, the nephew of my adoptee will attend the ceremonies on Memorial Day at the Margraten cemetery (as we call it) as a special guest of the foundation.

Today, the fifth of May, we celebrate our 70th Liberation Day, and no one is forgotten here — liberators on land, in the air and at sea, and the men and women of the resistance.

Now we come to my request. On the occasion of Memorial Day, each grave site always is adorned with a Dutch and American national flag. I had it in my mind to place a Montana state flag at each grave site where a Montana soldier rests, and the same for every name on the Walls of the Missing.

I found that there are 64 Montanan heroes to be honored this way. The relatives of my adoptee bring the flags with them, and we will place them on Friday before the official ceremonies of Memorial Day take place on Sunday. Given this very special occasion, I would love to take a picture of the individual grave site or name and send it to the family of the serviceman.

I would love to show them that their loved one isn’t forgotten here, and that he is honored at this side of the pond on the day Americans honor their fallen on the other side.

Now the problem is that of these men, I only know the county they came from, as that is what the ABMC provides for information. I have attached the list of names, sorted by county. There are 10 names of men of whom no county is known. People can search a name at the site’s home page www.abmc.gov. I can be contacted at lee2x@live.nl.

Flathead County

Colby Loyd A. Army Technician Fifth Class

Glacier County

Pings Eugene B. Army Second Lieutenant

Unknown county

Fager Peter J. Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant

Guse William G. Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant

Martin Francis B. Army Private First Class

Morang William W. Army Private

Plummer William H. Army First Lieutenant

Rodrigues Rudolfo NMI Army Private First Class

Rush Foy A. Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant

Stepman Alfred C. Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant

Trauman John F. Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant

Violette Theodore W. Army Air Forces Sergeant

Whitney Howard A. Army Private First Class

Lili Pasteur lives in The Netherlands and is associated with The Netherlands American Cemetery, also known as the Margraten Cemetery.