American Battle Monuments Commission
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 1923 |
| Headquarters | 2300 Clarendon Blvd., Suite 500 Arlington, Virginia 22201 Coordinates: 38°53′25″N 77°05′12″W / 38.89028°N 77.08667°W |
| Employees | 395 (2014) |
| Annual budget | $63.2 million USD (2014) |
| Agency executive |
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| Website | abmc |
The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) is a small independent agency of the United States government that administers, operates, and maintains permanent U.S. military cemeteries, memorials and monuments both inside and outside the United States.
As of 2015, there are 25 sites under the care of the ABMC. There are 124,905 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen interred at these sites, and more than 94,000 missing in action, or lost or buried at sea, whose names are individually carved into monuments. The ABMC also maintains an online database of names associated with each site.
The ABMC was established by the United States Congress in 1923. Its purpose is to:
The United States Department of War established eight European burial grounds for World War I. The ABMC's first program was landscaping and erecting non-sectarian chapels at each of the eight sites, constructing 11 separate monuments and two tablets at other sites in Europe, and constructing the Allied Expeditionary Forces World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C. For those buried who could not be identified during World War I, a percentage were commemorated by Star of David markers, rather than a cross; this practice was not continued for those who could not be identified during World War II.
In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order transferring control of the eight cemeteries to the ABMC, and made the commission responsible for the design, construction, maintenance and operation of all future permanent American military burial grounds outside the United States.
The ABMC has been the caretaker of cemeteries, monuments and memorials for World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Mexican–American War. In 2013, Clark Veterans Cemetery in the Philippines became the 25th site under the control of the commission. Clark Veterans Cemetery dates back to the Philippine–American War at the turn of the 20th century.
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