Today is the day when every American should stop and pay their respects to our honored dead, whether in thought or in deed.

#flagsin2016 is underway as #USArmy Soldiers from @TheOldGuard enter @ArlingtonNatl pic.twitter.com/4XoLwSHtq4

— The Old Guard (@USArmyOldGuard) May 26, 2016

Today, both the known and the unknown are remembered in ceremony and respect.

The solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. #MemorialDay pic.twitter.com/xem9vN4SJ0

— USS Arizona (@USSArizona) May 30, 2016

For love of country they accepted death. -James Garfield #MemorialDay pic.twitter.com/4zd182HZu9

— Janine Stange (@THEANTHEMGIRL) May 29, 2016

And today, let us also remember the American dead who lie scattered across different countries, who also lie in honored glory far away from the country they died serving. These cemeteries are maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission, who since 2013 are responsible for 25 different American cemeteries on foriegn soil.

ABMC administers, operates, and maintains 25 permanent American military cemeteries, and 27 federal memorials, monuments, and markers, which are located in 16 foreign countries, the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the British dependency of Gibraltar; three of the memorials are located within the U.S. These cemeteries and memorials are among the most beautiful and meticulously maintained shrines in the world.

In addition to grave sites, the World War I and II cemeteries, together with the three memorials on U.S. soil, also commemorate by name those U.S. service members who were missing in action, or lost or buried at sea during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. There are 207,590 U.S. war dead from World War I and World War II commemorated at ABMC sites; this includes 30,922 interments and 4,452 memorializations for World War I, and 93,233 interments and 78,983 memorializations for World War II.

Additionally, the names of 8,200 individuals listed as missing from the Korean War and 2,504 individuals from the Vietnam War are memorialized at ABMC’s Honolulu Memorial. ABMC also administers Mexico City National Cemetery, Corozal American Cemetery in Panama, and Clark Veterans Cemetery in the Philippines. More than 13,500 members of the armed forces, veterans, and others are interred in these sites.

Since World War I, most of the families of the fallen opted to have their remains returned home. For the estimated 23 to 30 percent which did not, these cemeteries are the final resting place of the brave souls who died “to make men free.” (The video that follows lists 24 cemeteries, as it was made in 2011. Clark Veterans Cemetery, located in the Philippines, was placed under ABMC’s care in December 2013.)

These cemeteries stand as tribute that Americans fought and died, and are painstakingly kept and maintained in their honor.

Today, as we remember our honored dead, remember those who never came home, and who lie with their comrades in arms on foreign soil that is now forever American.