Although our bodies eventually will give up on us, we are only truly gone from this earth if no one remembers us anymore. The number of soldiers who died during the second world war is huge. You only have to look at all the crosses on the American military cemetery Margraten in the Netherlands to get an idea as 8301 men and women have been buried there. Although the crosses do have names on them, most of these people have been forgotten, simply because they don’t have any family left. This also was the case for Private First Class James E. Wickline.

That all changed because of Maarten Vossen, who, after seeing Saving Private Ryan, became interested in the second world war and decided to adopt a grave. At age 13 he was assigned Wickline’s. It would be the start of a long search of the story behind the name and the grave. In Ageless Friends he is followed during his final steps in this journey. Continue reading →