Remembering the Fallen

May 26
2 min read

Memorial Day is for the dead not the dignitaries

**Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial**

By Kristine Christlieb, MFEI News & Commentary Editor

May 26, 2025

When General Lucian Truscott delivered his Memorial Day speech in May 1945, the war in Europe had ended just three weeks prior. The sounds of war likely were still ringing in the ears of the dignitaries gathered at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy.

There is no transcript of Truscott’s speech. We only know about it because Stars and Stripes journalist Bill Mauldin mentions it in his book The Brass Ring. He describes the setting — a field of 20,000 wooden crosses and Stars of David behind a festooned speaker’s platform and seating for an audience of dignitaries.

If anyone understood the sacrifices of war, Truscott did. He had commanded the 3rd infantry division, part of Patton’s 7th army in the Sicily campaign. When he took the stage, he did something extraordinary that Mauldin called “the most moving gesture I ever saw.”

Instead of delivering his remarks to the dignitaries in attendance, Truscott turned his back on them and addressed the fallen soldiers directly. He apologized to the dead, admitting that some of them may have died due to his mistakes.

Mauldin claims Truscott’s delivery was spontaneous and noteworthy because he refused to glorify war and focused on the personal cost to the young soldiers. The gesture of addressing the dead rather than the living underscored Truscott’s belief that Memorial Day was for the fallen not for dignitaries.