RAF Lakenheath honors fallen comrades

  • Published
  • By Maj. Keye Latimer
  • 48th Medical Support Squadron
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  Third Air Force, the U.S. Embassy in London and RAF Lakenheath will hold the annual Cambridge-American Military Cemetery Memorial Service May 26 at 11 a.m. in Cambridge. 

The event honors the memory of American World War II dead who helped achieve victory in Europe against the Axis powers. More than 1,000 people are expected to attend the event. There will be feature remarks by Her Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, Mr. Hugh Duberly and the Honorable Robert Holmes Tuttle, Ambassador to the Court of St. James. More than 110 associations will symbolically lay wreaths in memory of those dead or missing from the war. 

Additionally, the U.S. Air Forces in Europe brass ensemble will perform music for the occasion, the RAF Lakenheath Honor Guard will render a 21-gun salute, the Joint Analysis Center, RAF Molesworth Honor Guard will present the colors, and the 351st Air Refueling Squadron and the 493rd Fighter Squadron will perform a "missing man" formation fly-by to salute the fallen. There will also be a flyover by a local B-17, the "Sally B." 

The Cambridge American Military Cemetery is one of 13 American World War II military cemetery memorials erected on foreign soil by the American Battle Monuments Commission and the largest American military cemetery in the United Kingdom. It was established as a temporary military cemetery in 1943 on land donated by the University of Cambridge. The site was later selected as the only permanent American World War II military cemetery in the British Isles and was dedicated July 16, 1956. A large number of the 3,812 American servicemen and women interred there were aircrew of British-based American aircraft. 

Most of the others were killed in the invasions of North Africa and France, in the training areas of the United Kingdom and in the waters of the Atlantic.
To sign up for limited transportation contact Tech. Sgt. Gerren Douglas at 226-8047. 

For more information on the cemetery, please visit: http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ca.php