| Popis: |
This chapter discusses the closing of World War II and the new work the ABMC was directed to accomplish. Existing memorials needed to be restored, and hundreds of thousands of American soldiers needed to be buried in new overseas cemeteries or sent home. A major concern of the ABMC was finance. Many of the local ABMC workers in Europe had continued working, as best they could, during the war and were severely underpaid. There was initially little to no money for employees and the restoration of the monuments and cemeteries. General Robert M. Littlejohn, chief quartermaster for the European Theater of Operations, contributed $100,000 a year of army funds to the ABMC in Belgium and France. An entire new unit was created in the army in order to assist in any way necessary. This chapter also addresses the deaths of General Pershing and the agency’s first consulting architect, Paul Philippe Cret, and introduces their respective successors, George C. Marshall and John Harbeson. |
