Over 421,000 American service members lost their lives in World War II. Until recently, the number of Alabamians included in that total could be estimated,

but was not accurately known. The military published official casualty records after the war, but the records were incomplete due to various limitations and data transcription errors. 

Thanks to a small team of Stories Behind the Stars volunteers from across the state, a story has been researched and written for all 6,539 WWII fallen from the state of Alabama, ensuring that they are remembered as more than just a statistic in a book or an overgrown grave marker in a local cemetery. Working from the official casualty records, as well as names on local WWII memorials, period newspaper articles, cemetery records, and other references, this total is believed to be the most complete accounting of Alabama’s WWII dead.

The Alabamians served in every branch of the military and fought and died in well-known battles from throughout the war including Bataan, Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Kasserine Pass, Sicily, Burma, Tarawa, Anzio, D-Day, Saipan, the Battle of the Bulge, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Three of the Alabama fallen were posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration.

While some are buried or memorialized in Alabama, many are buried elsewhere, across the USA and around the world, from the Philippines' Cabanatuan Memorial and the Honolulu Memorial in the Pacific, to European cemeteries like the Ardennes American Cemetery in Luxembourg, and the Florence American Cemetery in Italy.

Now, thanks to the Stories Behind the Stars project, anyone visiting the graves of the Alabama WWII fallen can use a smartphone to read the stories of these fallen heroes, anywhere in the world.