BUT - IIRC - all the US Vets who died and were buried at Iwo Jima were later dug up and re-buried in Hawaii.
So relocating deceased is NOT NOTHING NEW!!!!
The Navy searched REAL HARD to find the grave of John Paul Jones ...found him in Paris, France (where he had died around 1792) - and the body was disinterred and brought back to the US. It now resides below the Chapel at the United States Naval Academy.
BTW - the Naval Academy also has a nice (but very worn) monument to an almost 200 year old monument to Sailors who died in the Barbary Coast wars:
“The Tripoli Monument is one of the oldest monuments in the country, and it is currently residing right here at the Naval Academy. It was originally commissioned by Commodore David Porter, who served in the Barbary Wars and later became a hero of the War of 1812 as commander of USS Essex. Sculpted in Italy, it was brought to the United States aboard the USS Constitution in September 1808 for placement in the Washington Naval Yard. There it remained until 1835, when it was moved to the U.S. Capitol building. Finally it was moved to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1860, where it was moved twice more before finding its current home.
‘’It probably holds the record for ‘most-moved monument’ in American history,’’ said James Cheevers, Associate Curator of the Naval Academy Museum.
The six names on the memorial itself are all officers who died in separate actions against the Barbary pirates in 1804, specifically attacks on the city of Tripoli in what is now Libya. Capt. Richard Somers, Lts. James Caldwell, James Decatur and Henry Wadsworth, and Midshipmen Joseph Israel and John Dorsey are immortalized on all four sides of the monument.”
MY THOUGHTS - BRING OUR DEAD HOME!!! Especially from Libya!
(BTW - I am the 2nd generation in my family who served in the Navy - with a son now serving on board the USS Virgina, SSN 774)