Honoring America's war dead far from home
CBSN
It's a continuing tribute half a world away, with a simple brush and bucket of water. Three days a week, a team of 20 in southern Italy washes each of the 7,861 military gravestones of troops from places like Connecticut and Missouri. The World War II Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial, south of Rome, honors American military war dead. Most were killed in campaigns that lead to liberating Rome from the Nazis during World War II.
Dawn Royster didn't know places like this existed before researching her family history. Royster promised her mother she'd come to Italy to honor her grandfather, Lieutenant James A. Calhoun. He was a Tuskegee Airman, part of that famed African American U.S. Army unit.
"My grandmother, I believe, was his neighbor, and they met and fell in love," Royster said. "He was Black. She was white. It was, uh, kind of a big deal! My grandmother's family wasn't happy about it."
