ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 Abstract: This chapter will examine how the families of the American World War dead decided where and how the dead would be permanently buried. After they were given as much information and as many answers as the government could provide, families had to choose whether to have the dead returned to them or to a national cemetery in the United States, left in their original graves, or moved to permanent overseas cemeteries. Families then waited months or years for the government to do what they wanted. In the end, while the majority of families asked that the dead be returned to them so they could conduct traditional funeral and burial rituals and later visit graves, many agreed to trust the government to care forever for the graves of their family members in cemeteries in Europe. As the government worked to move tens of thousands of bodies, it began developing respectful protocols for the handling of the dead that endure to the present day.
