MANILA, Philippines — "Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God."

I lose track of the number of white marble tombstones with that inscription as I walk through the beautifully manicured grounds of the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

My guidebook tells me 17,202 "of our military dead" — both U.S. and Filipino — are buried on the 152 acres just a few miles from the center of Manila. The majority lost their lives fighting World War II battles across the southwest and central Pacific.

Carved into the Italian granite of the memorial are names of strategic battles in the island-hopping campaign toward mainland Japan — the Marianas, Midway, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, among others.

It’s easy to get lost in the numbers.

There are headstones for 16,636 U.S. servicemembers and 570 Philippine troops who served as scouts or who were assigned to U.S. forces at the time they were killed. And 3,644 headstones are for those who could not be identified. More than 20 graves hold the remains of hundreds that could not be individually separated. Twenty sets of brothers lie side by side. And 29 Medal of Honor awardees rest here.

Gazing at the rows of crosses and Stars of David, it’s impossible to grasp the enormity of loss. The circular memorial structure, however, hits home. Carved into the walls, floor to ceiling, are the names of 36,285 troops whose bodies were never recovered. Somehow, it’s easier to comprehend the magnitude here.

Sgt. Mason E. Hulette from Pennsylvania; Pvt. Demetrio T. Hulguin, a Philippines native; 1st Lt. Norman Hulin from Minnesota; and Pvt. Orall L. Huling from Illinois. I wonder about them, their lives, their deaths. I wonder if their families have ever visited the memorial — so far from home for most of them.

Larry A. Adkinson, cemetery superintendent and retired sailor, tells me that family visits are often emotional. For some, he said, the visits provide needed closure. About five years ago, a 50-year-old man visited the grave of a brother he had never met. His only knowledge of his brother was through family stories.

"We get a lot of grandsons and granddaughters," Adkinson said. "Sometimes they just spend the whole time kneeling at the grave."

Last year, he said, 145,000 people visited the cemetery. Manila hosts the largest of 24 overseas cemeteries for U.S. servicemembers. Its on land that once was part of the U.S. Fort William McKinley.

Adkinson said he wishes more U.S. servicemembers — like those in the Philippines now for the annual Balikatan training exercise — would visit.

Last year, he said, the USS Blue Ridge from Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, sent a few busloads of sailors to help place flags on the tombstones for Memorial Day.

The cemetery is run by the American Battle Monuments Commission, an independent agency of the executive branch of the federal government, responsible for commemorating the services of U.S. servicemembers where they have served since April 6, 1917.