Camp Custer was built in 1917 and then accommodated 36,000 men. During World War I, about 90,000 men passed through the camp. After the war, the camp became a demobilization base for more than 100,000 men.
In 1924, the Battle Creek Veterans Hospital was built on the property and in 1943, Fort Custer Post Cemetery was established. Congress made the cemetery national in 1981.
The drive in takes you up the beautiful Avenue of Flags.
The visitor center has a very convenient grave locater. Type in the name for which you are looking, and the machine will print out a map with the grave location.
The restrooms keep a tight lock on the toilet paper 😊
This national cemetery is the fifth largest national cemetery in the U.S. There are currently around 30,000 burials on the 770 acre site.
The gravestones all have numbers on them for easy locating. Some of the upright stones also have the names of wives and/or children on the back.
There is one unknown soldier from the Civil War buried here, a member of the 102nd U.S. Colored Regiment in the Union Army.
During World War II, Fort Custer was expanded to more than 14,000 acres and it became a U.S. training base and a POW Camp for German prisoners. About 5000 German soldiers were held at Fort Custer between 1943 and 1946. Before the last Germans were repatriated in 1946, 16 POWs were killed when their truck collided with a train while returning from a work detail. Along with 10 other German prisoners who died of other causes, the Germans are buried in their own section.
The stones dated October 31, 1945, are those of the Germans who died in the accident.
In another part of the cemetery a very meditative Memorial Pathway was created that contains about 30 monuments and memorials to various conflicts, wars, and military divisions.
These are just a few of the memorials.
The carillon was dedicated in 1986 and rings during funeral services at the cemetery.
A half circle of flags representing the 50 states can be found near the Memorial Pathway.
Wade Herbert Flemons was a musician/composer/soul singer who had his first hit in 1958 at age 17, "Here I stand." Over the course of his career, he wrote around 200 songs both for himself and for others, and he spent 1971-1972 as a vocalist with Earth Wind and Fire. Flemons served in Vietnam and died at age 53 from cancer.
Nearby lies James Arnold who died in Baghdad, Iraq when an IED detonated near his unit. He had just turned 21.
There are many stories to be found here on these sacred grounds and we were honored to discover just a few of them.
The original Post cemetery was a couple miles away. When this one opened the graves were moved that's why there are upright tombstones.
ReplyDeleteGood to know!
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