The agency charged with keeping watch over America's overseas military cemeteries chose its 103rd birthday to open something new to the public, unveiling an online archive of thousands of artifacts that document more than a century of American sacrifice in foreign wars.
The American Battle Monuments Commission last week launched its Online Catalog, a searchable digital collection that includes historic photographs, architectural blueprints, furniture, fine art and architectural molds drawn from the agency's holdings. The date marked the anniversary of the agency's founding by Congress on March 4, 1923.
"Sharing these items with the world helps us to further honor the achievements of the U.S. armed forces by preserving their legacies, as well as the sites at which they rest," said Charlotte Meunier Josnard, the commission's museum curator. "We are proud to share this collection with the public, and we're eager for them to explore the richness behind these pristine sites."
Artifacts From America's First Combat Aviators
To open the catalog, the agency spotlighted items tied to one of the most dramatic chapters in early American military history, the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial Cemetery in Marnes-la-Coquette, France, roughly 12 miles west of Paris.
The debut collection draws from ABMC's own holdings as well as items loaned from the Dennis Gordon Lafayette Escadrille and Flying Corps Collection, courtesy of Sarah and Ross Perot Jr. It includes a piece of aircraft skin painted with the Lafayette Escadrille insignia, personal photographs and keepsakes from the pilots, and the uniform of 2nd Lt. Meredith L. Dowd, who died in combat 16 days before the Armistice.
"Sarah and I are proud to support the American Battle Monuments Commission in preserving and sharing this important history," Perot Jr. said. "Honoring the service and sacrifice of our military has long been a commitment of our family. We are honored to help recognize those who serve and to ensure their legacy continues to educate and inspire future generations."
ABMC said it plans to feature a new curated collection each month going forward.
The American Military Aviator
Meredith Loveland Dowd did not wait for America to enter the war. A native of Orange, New Jersey, and a Princeton undergraduate, he crossed the Atlantic in November 1916 to drive ambulances near Verdun for the American Field Service, well before Congress declared war on Germany in April 1917.
His comrades described him as tireless on the notoriously dangerous Esnes-Montzéville run near Verdun. When his Field Service term expired in May 1917, he joined the French aviation service, trained at Avord and Pau, and eventually flew with Escadrille N.152, nicknamed the Crocodiles, as it helped defend Paris.
Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Service in April 1918, Dowd was assigned to the 147th Aero Squadron as the war entered its final phase. On Oct. 26, 1918, engine trouble forced him to take off late and alone. He caught up to his patrol over the Forest of Dannevoux, north of Verdun, but four German scouts had crossed the lines.
He attacked immediately, shot one down and pressed the assault twice more before a burst of machine-gun fire brought him down. He was only 23 years old and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
His remains were eventually moved from their initial burial site at Romagne-sous-Montfaucon to the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial Cemetery, where they now rest alongside the men who flew before he ever arrived in France.
Before America Joined the War
The outfit Dowd joined had roots in the idealism of young Americans who found the argument for neutrality unconvincing. After World War I erupted in 1914, a wave of U.S. volunteers sailed for France, enlisting as ambulance drivers and soldiers in the French Foreign Legion.
By 1915, a group of them began pushing the French government to consolidate American pilots into a dedicated flying unit. The French recognized the propaganda value and agreed. On April 20, 1916, nearly a full year before Congress voted for war, the first all-American flying squadron stood up at Luxeuil-les-Bains. They flew their first combat mission on May 13, 1916, at the Battle of Verdun.
Only 38 Americans flew with the unit, officially designated Escadrille N.124. But they were joined by more than 200 others who served in various French squadrons under a broader designation known as the Lafayette Flying Corps. The corps was an eclectic mix of Harvard and Princeton men, a professional polo player, All-American football players, an FBI special agent and even a U.S. ambassador. They risked losing their citizenship to fight in a war their country had not yet joined.
Eleven members of the Lafayette Escadrille were killed before the war ended. In February 1918, the unit was disbanded and folded into the U.S. Army Air Service as the 103rd Aero Squadron. Its combat veterans became the backbone of a force with virtually no combat experience.
The memorial cemetery was dedicated in 1928, built largely with private donations from the pilots' families. At its heart is a stone arch built at half the scale of the Arc de Triomphe, flanked by colonnaded wings overlooking a reflecting pool. Beneath it lies a crypt with 68 sarcophagi, one for each member of the Lafayette Flying Corps who died in the war.
ABMC took ownership of the site in January 2017, adding it as the ninth World War I commemorative cemetery in its care.
The Agency Behind the Graves
The ABMC was created during the presidency of Calvin Coolidge, with a narrow but enduring mission to build and maintain permanent American military cemeteries and memorials on foreign soil, and to honor those buried in them.
Gen. John J. Pershing, who commanded the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during WWI, served as the commission's first chairman and guided its early construction efforts across France and Belgium. The agency went on to build the Normandy American Cemetery, the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines, and dozens of others across 16 countries.
Today ABMC oversees 26 overseas cemeteries, 31 memorials and monuments, and three memorials inside the United States. More than 200,000 American service members are buried or commemorated at its sites. A permanent staff of superintendents and groundskeepers stationed abroad maintains the grounds year-round.
The new online catalog extends that mission into a space that is accessible by anyone. It joins virtual 360-degree tours of all 26 ABMC cemeteries already available online, giving researchers, descendants and the general public access they cannot always get in person.
What Comes Next
The Lafayette Escadrille artifacts are only the opening chapter. The catalog's broader holdings span the full arc of ABMC's history, including architectural blueprints from the construction of its cemetery sites and plaster molds used to create the statues and decorative elements that now stand across Europe and the Pacific.
The next Curator's Collection, scheduled for April, will center on a desk originally built for Gen. Pershing's office at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. It was later moved to ABMC's offices at Suresnes American Cemetery and Pershing Hall in Paris, where it remained until a recent restoration returned it to the agency's Paris office.
ABMC said the catalog is designed to grow over time. The full collection and virtual 360-degree tours of all 26 overseas cemeteries are available online.
