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Margraten, Netherlands, May, 1966: Children place flowers at the graves of “adopted” fallen service members during a Dutch-American Memorial Day ceremony attended by more than 8,000 people at the American military cemetery in Margraten.
Mieke Kirkels, a public historian in
the Netherlands, didn’t know about the gravediggers until a little over a decade ago. Only in 2014 did she learn that 172
African American soldiers are buried in Margraten. Now a team of Dutch historians, and an author in
Portsmouth, have embarked on several projects to spotlight these men. They are looking specifically for any relatives of the 172, some of whom hailed from
Hampton Roads. They want to include photos and histories of the men in The Faces of Margraten program.
Chris Dickon, in particular, said people should know about the soldiers’ sacrifices, especially when the military of World War II didn’t trust them to fight but only to help. Military policies then created painful consequences that linger in America and
Purple Heart reunited with family of man killed in World War II
TULSA, Oklahoma (Tulsa World) Robert Titsworth got the surprise of his life when he opened his front door Monday.
Waiting for him at his Broken Arrow home was his cousin, Christine Riley, and Erin Faith Allen of Purple Hearts Reunited, who had the Purple Heart of his uncle Thomas Dowda, a World War II paratrooper killed in action in 1945.
Titsworth, a veteran himself, said the Purple Heart had been lost over time after being passed from family member to family member.
Purple Hearts Reunited, an organization dedicated to finding and reuniting the honor to veterans’ families, received the medal, and after months of researching and calling various people, reunited Dowda’s Purple Heart with Titsworth in a surprise ceremony.