(25 Mar 2014) VOICE-OVER SCRIPT:
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA IS SET TO HONOR SEVERAL HUNDRED AMERICANS WHO DIED IN EUROPE DURING WORLD WAR ONE WHEN HE VISITS FLANDERS FIELD AMERICAN CEMETERY IN BELGIUM ON WEDNESDAY.
FLANDERS FIELD IS THE SMALLEST OF THE EIGHT WORLD WAR ONE U-S MILITARY CEMETERIES IN EUROPE, AND IS OFTEN OVERLOOKED.
SOUNDBITE (English) Patrick Lernout, Flanders Field American Cemetery author:
"Sometimes the Flanders Field cemetery is forgotten and that is why the importance is so big that President Obama comes here."
THE LOCATION OF THE CEMETERY ALSO HAS SIGNIFICANCE.
SOUNDBITE (English) Christopher Sims, Flanders Field American Cemetery guide:
"The significance here and why they chose Waregem as the site for a permanent cemetery was because the last offensive of the Great War for the Americans started here in Waregem."
AMERICA DIDN'T BECOME FULLY INVOLVED IN THE GREAT WAR UNTIL 1917.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Luc De Vos, Professor at Leuven University:
"And at that moment the American army was smaller than the Danish army and much smaller than the Belgian army so they had to build an army and they took months and it was only in 1918 that you had American troops on the front."
THE 368 MEN BURIED AT FLANDERS FIELD WERE PART OF A U-S CONTINGENT OF UP TO 2 MILLION SOLDIERS DEPLOYED DURING THE GREAT WAR.
2014 MARKS 100 YEARS SINCE THE OUTBREAK OF WORLD WAR ONE, A MILESTONE THAT IS BEING COMMEMORATED THROUGHOUT EUROPE.
MATTHEW BURGOYNE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
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