American Battle Monuments Commission Expands Junior Guide Program to 24 Overseas Sites

The American Battle Monuments Commission wants the next generation of Americans to understand who is honored at its overseas military cemeteries and monuments and why.

The commission recently expanded its Junior Guide Program to 24 sites worldwide, offering children interactive booklets filled with puzzles, riddles and coloring activities designed to teach them about the history and service members honored at each site. 

The program began at Flanders Field American Cemetery in Belgium in 2022 and has since grown to cover 22 of the commission's 26 overseas cemeteries and two standalone monuments, Chateau-Thierry and Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument in France. Hundreds of children have already participated, according to the commission.

Earning the Badge

While anyone can participate, the booklets were designed for children between 7 and 12 years old. Each one is tailored to a specific site, meaning the activities at Normandy American Cemetery in France will look different from those at Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Italy or the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines. 

The commission said the activities are built to let children physically explore the grounds of a cemetery while reflecting on what the site represents.

"As ABMC has expanded its visitor services over the years, it's important that we also think about how we share our mission with our youngest audiences," said Charlotte Giraudo, ABMC Interpretation Program manager. "We encourage all of our young visitors to participate in the program at our sites and to share their experience with others when they get home."

After finishing their booklet and presenting it to on-site staff, participants earn a badge sticker and either a pin or token bearing the name of the site they visited. The commission encourages its newly minted Junior Guides to take what they learned back to family and friends at home. 

The four ABMC cemeteries not yet offering the program are Suresnes American Cemetery in France, Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium, Corozal American Cemetery in Panama and Clark Veterans Cemetery in the Philippines. The commission told Military.com that each site requires materials tailored to its unique attributes and visitor profile, and that the goal is to have the program running at all sites by the end of this year.

Keeping Pershing's Promise

The expansion is part of a broader shift at ABMC toward public education and outreach. Congress established the commission on March 4, 1923, placing it under the leadership of Gen. of the Armies John J. Pershing, who set the enduring standard that "time will not dim the glory of their deeds." 

More than a century later, the agency operates 26 cemeteries and 31 federal memorials, monuments and commemorative plaques across 17 countries, where more than 200,000 American service members are buried or memorialized.

For decades, the primary visitors to those sites were the spouses, children and siblings of the Americans resting there. But as those generations continue to age and pass on, ABMC has increasingly turned its attention to engaging the broader public. 

The agency has invested in visitor centers at its major cemeteries, launched virtual 360-degree tours of all 26 sites and, earlier this year, unveiled a searchable online catalog of thousands of historic photographs, architectural blueprints and artifacts from its holdings.

The Junior Guide Program fits into that broader effort. A child completing a booklet at the Normandy American Cemetery, where more than 9,300 Americans who died during the D-Day landings and the campaign that followed are buried, is absorbing a piece of history that might otherwise remain distant and abstract. 

The same goes for a young visitor working through activities at the Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument, where Army Rangers scaled 100-foot cliffs under fire on June 6, 1944, or at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, the largest American military cemetery in Europe, where more than 14,000 service members from the First World War are interred.

The families who once kept these sites personal are disappearing, and the commission is building new pathways to make sure the next generation of Americans understands what happened at these places and who is buried there. A coloring page and a badge or sticker may seem small, but for a 9-year-old standing among thousands of white marble headstones in a foreign country, it could be the very thing that makes the visit stick.

More information is available at abmc.gov.