Qualla: North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial

North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial: Introduction

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Captain Foy Draper won gold in the 4x100 meter relay at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, outrunning the world on a track built to glorify the Third Reich. Seven years later, he died as a USAAF pilot in North Africa, and his remains were laid to rest in the soil of ancient Carthage. His headstone is one of 2,841 that stand in precise rows across 27 acres overlooking the Gulf of Tunis, at the only American military cemetery on the entire African continent.

North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial: Hallowed Ground Twice Over

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The cemetery's location carries an almost unbearable weight of history. It lies over part of the ruins of Roman Carthage, itself built on the ashes of the Punic city that Rome destroyed in 146 BC. American soldiers who fought and died in the North African campaigns of World War I...

North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial: The Names on the Wall

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Beyond the rows of graves, a long wall runs along the southeast edge of the burial area. This is the Wall of the Missing, and it bears 3,724 names, each one a servicemember whose remains were never recovered or identified. Rosettes have been carved beside the names of those who w...

North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial: Lives Behind the Marble

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Among the dead are people whose stories defy the anonymity of mass warfare. Private Nicholas Minue, a Greek immigrant from New Jersey, earned the Medal of Honor for single-handedly attacking an enemy position near Medjez el Bab, Tunisia, in 1943. He was killed in the action that ...

North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial: A Chapel Built to Remember

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The memorial chapel and court were designed to harmonize with the local North African architecture, their forms echoing the region's building traditions rather than imposing a purely American aesthetic. Inside the chapel, polished marble walls frame flags and sculpture. The memor...