A Midshipman escort helps a wreath layer at the French Monument at St. John’s College Oct. 22. Naval Academy Midshipmen and staff along with 26 other organizations were present at the ceremony that honored the French Soldiers and Sailors who died while fighting in the American Revolution. USNA photo by Patrick Gordon.

This ceremony took place not across the Atlantic, but across the street from the Naval Academy at St. John’s College, home to the French Monument. The monument stands in honor of those French soldiers and sailors who bravely gave their lives in support of American independence during the American Revolution.

U.S. Naval Academy Midshipmen, as well as exchange midshipmen and cadets from the French Naval and Military Academies, paraded on to the field in front of the towering monument to the accompaniment of the Naval Academy Band during the ceremony Oct. 22. The culmination of the ceremony was the laying of wreaths at the foot of the monument, during which representatives of 26 organizations paid their respects. Each wreath-layer was escorted to the monument by either a U.S. or French Naval Academy Midshipman.

For more than 40 years this event has taken place annually. According to Lt. Robert Kroeger, French naval exchange officer at the Naval Academy, in 1965 the French exchange officer at the time and other staff researched the monument and found it was erected by the Sons of the Revolution, an American patriotic organization. They contacted the Sons of the Revolution and suggested an event to commemorate the memory of the French who died here, and it has gone on ever since.

‘‘Since 1965, the French exchange officer at the U.S. Naval Academy has had the duty of getting in contact with the part-icipating groups and organizing the ceremony,” said Kroeger. ‘‘In addition, the Academy sends Midshipmen to represent the Naval Academy and show its interest in comm-emorating this event.”

Each of the 26 part-icipating organizations invites their own guests to the ceremony, with guests of the Academy being invited by the U.S. Naval Academy French Club. The French Embassy is also involved in the ceremony, said Kroeger.

This year, the embassy sent the French naval attachÈ Capt. Bruno Demeocq, who addressed the crowd and presented Kroeger and two retired U.S. Army officers with the French National Defense Medal, Gold Echelon. Kroeger was awarded the medal for his 11 years of service in the French Navy, eight of which were spent at sea in combat operations.

The idea for the monument was first conceived by former Academy professor Henry Marion. Marion was in France when the body of John Paul Jones was taken from France to Annapolis and he noticed the care that the French took in maintaining the graves of American Sailors killed in battle off the coast of France in 1864. Marion believed the French deserved a reciprocal honor and in 1911, five years after the cornerstone was laid, the monument was dedicated with U.S. President William H. Taft in attendance.

The bronze faÁade of the monument is of a forlorn woman staring at a shield while French soldiers march behind her. On the shield is written a simple but moving reminder of those who gave all for the liberty of another’s land, ‘‘A tribute of gratitude to the brave Soldiers and Sailors of France buried here who gave their lives in the struggle for American independence.”