Italian Armed Forces Day has been celebrated since November 4th 1919. A Commemoration of the Fallen was held at the military memorial of Fagaré della Battaglia, where 10,507 are interred including Lieutenant Edward Michael McKey the only American buried in an Italian military memorial cemetery. McKey was raised in Minnesota and studied at the School of Fine Arts in St Paul.
He served in World War I as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross in France. McKey received the French War cross and then in December 1917 transferred to Italy. McKey was killed on the Piave River Front on June 15th 1918. He was the first American Red Cross member killed in Italy and awarded the Italian Silver Medal for Military Valor. McKey was a friend of Ernest Hemingway who later wrote a poem about his death which is inscribed on the shrine to the Piave soldiers where McKey is buried. Watch the video here.
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