A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific is a national cemetery located at Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, Hawaii. It serves as a memorial to honor those men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces, and those who have been killed in doing so. It is administered by the National Cemetery Administration of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Millions of visitors visit the cemetery each year, and it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Hawaii.
Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire. They may have been killed, wounded, captured, executed, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave have been positively identified. Becoming MIA has been an occupational risk for as long as there has been warfare.
In civil and military jurisprudence, summary execution is the putting to death of a person accused of a crime without the benefit of a free and fair trial. The term results from the legal concept of summary justice to punish a summary offense, as in the case of a drumhead court-martial, but the term usually denotes the summary execution of a sentence of death. Under international law, it is a combatant's refusal to accept an opponent's lawful surrender and the combatant's provision of no quarter, by killing the surrendering opponents.
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is a federal military cemetery in the city of San Diego, California. It is located on the grounds of the former Army coastal artillery station Fort Rosecrans and is administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The cemetery is located approximately 10 miles (16 km) west of Downtown San Diego, overlooking San Diego Bay and the city from one side, and the Pacific Ocean on the other. Fort Rosecrans is named after William Starke Rosecrans, a Union general in the American Civil War. The cemetery was registered as California Historical Landmark #55 on December 6, 1932. The cemetery is spread out over 77.5 acres (31.4 ha) located on both sides of Catalina Blvd.
Riverside National Cemetery (RNC) is a cemetery located in Riverside, California, dedicated to the interment of United States military personnel. The cemetery covers 1,250 acres (510 ha), making it the largest cemetery managed by the National Cemetery Administration. It has been the most active cemetery in the system since 2000, based on the number of interments.
The Utah prisoner of war massacre took place after the end of World War II in Europe at midnight on July 8, 1945, at a German and Italian prisoner-of-war camp in Salina, Utah. Nine German prisoners of war were murdered and nineteen prisoners were wounded by American private Clarence V. Bertucci, who was on active duty in the camp. After a night out, Bertucci returned to camp around midnight to assume his night duty at the guard tower. Bertucci subsequently loaded the .30-caliber M1917 Browning machine gun on the tower and fired at the tents of the sleeping prisoners. After the massacre, he revealed his motivation was that, "he had hated Germans, so he had killed Germans." Six Germans were immediately killed, two died in Salina's hospital, one died in an army hospital, and nineteen were wounded.
Fort McClellan, originally Camp McClellan, is a decommissioned United States Army post located adjacent to the city of Anniston, Alabama. During World War II, it was one of the largest U.S. Army installations, training an estimated half-million troops. After the war it became the home of the Military Police Corps, the Chemical Corps and the Women's Army Corps. From 1975 until it was closed in 1999, Fort McClellan was home of the Military Police Corps and the One Station Unit Training (OSUT) Military Police School. Also after World War II until it was closed in 1999, it was home of the Chemical Corps School, which trained soldiers in chemical warfare. In 1988, Fort McClellan was used as an alternate training academy for the United States Border Patrol. Before its closure by the Base Realignment and Closure commission (BRAC), the post employed about 10,000 military personnel and about 1,500 civilians. It underwent unexploded ordnance (UXO) clean up from 2003 to 2014. Since 2010, about 3,000 acres of the post's brownfield land have been redeveloped as a mixed-use community. The portion of the post which has not been redeveloped is currently owned by the Alabama Army National Guard and is used as a training facility for units from all across the state, also housing the Alabama Army National Guard’s Officer Candidate School, for enlisted soldiers looking to earn their commission.
Black Hills National Cemetery, originally named Fort Meade National Cemetery, is a United States National Cemetery near Sturgis, South Dakota. Named after the nearby Black Hills, over 29,000 interments of military veterans and their family members have taken place since its founding in 1948. It is administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which also operates the nearby Fort Meade National Cemetery. It was the first—and currently, the only active—national cemetery in South Dakota.
Chattanooga National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located near the center of the city of Chattanooga in Hamilton County, Tennessee. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses 120.9 acres (48.9 ha), and as of 2014, had more than 50,000 interments.
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses 154.7 acres (62.6 ha), and as of 2014, had over 144,000 interments. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Fort Custer National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located just outside the village of Augusta in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. It encompasses 770.4 acres (311.8 ha), and as of 2022 had 33,000 interments.
Richmond National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery three miles (4.8 km) east of Richmond in Henrico County, Virginia. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses 9.7 acres (3.9 ha), and as of 2021 had more than 11,000 interments. It is closed to new interments. Richmond National Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
Stalag VII-A was the largest prisoner-of-war camp in Nazi Germany during World War II, located just north of the town of Moosburg in southern Bavaria. The camp covered an area of 35 hectares. It served also as a transit camp through which prisoners, including officers, were processed on their way to other camps. At some time during the war, prisoners from every nation fighting against Germany passed through it. At the time of its liberation on 29 April 1945, there were 76,248 prisoners in the main camp and 40,000 or more in Arbeitskommando working in factories, repairing railroads or on farms.
Great Lakes National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in Holly, Oakland County, Michigan. It was established in 2005, and is one of two national cemeteries in Michigan. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the cemetery covers 544 acres and, as of 2024, had over 55,000 interments.
The United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea, located at Tanggok in the Nam District, City of Busan, Republic of Korea, is a burial ground for United Nations Command (UNC) casualties of the Korean War. It contains 2,300 graves and is the only United Nations cemetery in the world. Laid out over 14 hectares, the graves are set out in 22 sites designated by the nationalities of the buried servicemembers.
Miramar National Cemetery is a federal military cemetery in the city of San Diego, California. It is located in the north west corner of the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar on the grounds of old Camp Kearny (1917) and Camp Elliott (1942).
Vito Trause was an Italian-American soldier in the United States Army, prisoner of war during World War II, semi-professional athlete, and community figure in New Jersey.
