"It isn't his body I want. It's his soul." Delia Gardiner, mother of TEC5 Clovis, KIA January 20, 1945.
They rest in a distant land they fought to liberate 80 years ago; their lives ended by war and their voices quieted by time. For 54 Maine WWII service members interred or commemorated at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Homburg, Belgium, their stories are brought to life once again in The Dirigo Men of Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery: Stories of Maine's WWII Service Members. From Maine's rocky coast along the Atlantic Ocean to its highest peak of Mount Katahdin and from towns in between, these men answered their country's call. They left everything familiar to fight in a faraway land. They hugged their parents, siblings, spouses, and children goodbye. They missed their families. They dreamt of reunions. They wept. They suffered. They mourned. They sacrificed. They freed a continent. They liberated generations. We are responsible for honoring their lives and appreciating their ultimate gift to us. The words President Ronald Reagan expressed on the 40th anniversary of D-Day ring true for the Maine service members and their comrades at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, "Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their valor and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died."