Belleau Wood, where Marines helped Allied Forces secure victory, also helped to establish the prestige and reputation for bravery of the Marine Corps overseas. Rear Admiral Brent Scott, chaplain of the U.S. Marine Corps, said the battle was a “critical turning point” for the Corps. Most of the 2,289 American soldiers, including 474 Marines, buried in the Belleau cemetery died in the French northern Aisne-Marne region in 1918. Mark Shively and his wife, Linda, from Beaverton Oregon, also had a personal, if less direct, reason to be at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery this weekend. His unit commander, Marine Corps Lt. Carleton Burr, a 1913 Harvard graduate from Milton, Massachusetts, would not be as lucky.

Source: Washington Post May 27, 2018 11:51 UTC