ROOKE: If People In Foreign Countries Can Do It For Fallen Americans, So Can You

The day we honor our fallen heroes is here.

Memorial Day is more than a day off. It’s a hallowed celebration of the bravery of our dead — those who lost their lives protecting our American way of life. It’s important that on days like today, we show them and their families the respect and gratitude they deserve by visiting a National Cemetery and taking part in honoring their ultimate sacrifice.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced that over 130 national cemeteries are holding events this Memorial Day weekend to mourn and honor our fallen military members. The ceremony is typically about an hour long. But in that hour, we get a chance to teach the younger generations the debt of gratitude we all owe the men and women laid to rest under those marble crosses.

Memorial Day isn’t about barbecues or beach days—it’s about those American heroes who gave everything for our freedom.

THIS 70-SECOND VIDEO CAPTURES WHAT THE DAY IS TRULY ABOUT. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/QbDVNWgreb

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 25, 2025

For all the ways we could point to as examples of Europe’s fallen state, there is one measure they haven’t let go of: honoring the men who died on their soil, far away from their homes, to defend the freedom we can often take for granted. They have dedicated volunteers who adopt the graves of American soldiers. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)

For 80 years, citizens in places like Holland have taken our American heroes into their lives. These adoptions are an essential part of remembering our fallen. These volunteers keep our soldiers’ gravesites clean, place bouquets of red, white, and blue flowers in front, and rub sand from the beaches of Normandy into their carved names and dates so that our soldiers’ information stands out against the white marble crosses. They talk to our dead, praising them and thanking them for their sacrifice. When the ritual of honor is over, they take a photograph of each grave to send to our soldiers’ families.

🇧🇪🤝🇺🇸 Every year at the Flanders Field American Cemetery in Waregem, local schoolchildren sing the American national anthem during the Memorial Day ceremony. This century-old tradition is a powerful expression of gratitude – recognizing the sacrifice of American soldiers who… pic.twitter.com/q1BNMb4agO

— US Embassy Brussels (@usembbrussels) May 22, 2025

We are blessed to be able to attend backyard BBQs with our friends and family, donned with American flags and patriotic playlists, because our neighbors were willing to lay down their lives for us. American heroes wear the uniform, knowing they might have to pay the price for our peaceful lives.

The cost of these blessings was blood and legacies that will no longer be. If turmoil of the forever war in the Middle East and the national dysfunction we’ve experienced for decades has taught us anything, it’s that our country, no matter its faults, still has plenty to fight for. Their deaths were not in vain. (RELATED: Honor Memorial Day With The Best Scenes From ‘Band Of Brothers’)

This is why… pic.twitter.com/2GZ1q5K22N

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) May 25, 2025

As Americans, we owe them so much more than visiting their graves, and yet, for most of us, the thought of finding a local cemetery and celebrating our dead is the farthest thing from our minds. While we can honor them every day by living and fighting for the ideals they laid their lives down for, on days like Memorial Day, we should make the extra effort to celebrate them at their final resting place.

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