Abstract
In June 1920, a military order was issued to place a guard in the Belleau Wood cemetery in France to arrest, if necessary, any American who attempted to clandestinely exhume the bodies of soldiers buried in the isolated burial grounds. The order was given after learning that James Foster of McKeesport, the father of a U.S. Marine killed during the battle of Belleau Wood, had made extensive plans to disinter the remains of his son and take him back to the United States. Despite having spent more than three months in France trying to negotiate with government officials, Foster returned to McKeesport without the body of his son. He would have to wait another year before the remains could be buried in the family cemetery plot in Dravosburg, a little over three years from the day the Marine was killed in battle.