Remembering America's War Dead on Memorial Day 2011

The US military cemetery pictured above is in Carthage, Tunisia. 2,8741 World War II American military war dead rest at the 27 acre North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial. Nearly 4,000 names of the missing are also remembered. As with all American military cemeteries abroad, the graves are decorated for Memorial Day this weekend with American flags.

Here in Wilmette, the Village of Wilmette and Huerter Post #46 of the American Legion will host a Memorial Day parade on Monday, May 30. The parade will begin at 10:30 am at St. Joseph School on Lake Avenue and Ridge Road, proceed east to Park Avenue, south to Wilmette Avenue and conclude at Village Hall, 1200 Wilmette Avenue.

A Memorial Day ceremony will be held on the front lawn of Village Hall at the conclusion of the parade.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.It is now celebrated on the last Monday in May.