Comments on: “All Belgian Saints Will Honor Our Brothers’ Graves”

By: ji

ji — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:26:03 +0000

Oh, the seemingly-lost art of writing letters…

A wonderful example of a saint in these latter-days…

By: Maurine Ward

Maurine Ward — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 06:15:13 +0000

It was nice to learn more about Charles Devignez and see his devotion to the Mormon Boys in Henri Chapelle. I am humbled by the Belgian Saints who took the time to honor the fallen Americans in the cemetery.

Mark,thank you for enumerating the LDS soldiers from Utah, Idaho, and Arizona. It brings this story closer to home instead of just reading about American burials across the ocean.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:11:18 +0000

Thanks for that additional material, Mark. My cousin “came home” quite a while after the war from a similar cemetery. I wasn’t there to know, of course, but I think that during that time when she couldn’t do anything herself, my aunt would have been comforted by having a picture and knowing that somebody, like Bro. Devignez, had visited.

Me, too, Carol. The Belgian Saints certainly had enough to do to look after themselves in those days — that they cared about these boys, and wanted their families to know, really says something about their compassion.

By: Carol

Carol — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:20:46 +0000

What a wonderful saint. I find myself so shallow compared to saints like this. I’m grateful for these stories.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:16:50 +0000

There are indeed other Mormon “boys” buried at Henry-Chapelle–the website of the American Battle Monuments Commission has databases that can be searched by name or by state of origin and cemetery. There are 23 Utah boys buried at Henri-Chapelle, 37 from Arizona and 17 from Idaho. Those three were the most likely home states of Mormon men in the service during World War II, and some of those 77 were Mormons–a quick check at New Family Search confirms that.

It appears, though, that Norman Funk is no longer one of them. This, from the cemetery’s website, gives the likely reason:

It was from the temporary cemetery at Henri-Chapelle that the first shipments of remains of American war dead were returned to the U.S. for permanent burial. The repatriation program began on July 27, 1947 at a special ceremony at the cemetery when the disinterment began. The first shipment of 5,600 American war dead from Henri-Chapelle left Antwerp, Belgium the first week of October 1947.

Families of deceased servicemen and -women had the option of having their bodies returned to the U.S., and the Funk family chose to do that. Norman Funk, a native of Benson, Utah, was buried in the Logan City Cemetery. (A photograph and a story from the local newspaper reporting his death is at Find A Grave.)