Your honour, the Mayor and the citizens of Ravenna:
     On behalf of the American Officers and men of Porto Corsini I wish to thank you
for the generous hospitality which you have so kindly extended to us this evening and
express to you the deep gratitude we feel in our hearts for the genuine interest you 
have taken in our welfare in the past.
     When America joined the Allies in their struggle for Liberty and righteousness 
it became our privilege to fight side by side with your heroic countrymen whose 
valorous deeds and glorious sacrifices gained for their country the everlasting praise
and admiration of the world.
     During our stay at Porto Corsini you have always treated us with the utmost 
consideration. We arrived here, strangers in a foreign land, a land quite different
in many respects from our own. You gave us a most friendly welcome, provided for our
comfort, tenderly nursed our sick, took us in your homes and entertained us and honored
us in many ways. This you did for us while the men from your own homes were giving 
their life's blood in battle and while the enemy was so horribly devastating Italian 
soil and property. Through all of your trials and sorrows you have been so thoughtful 
and so good to us that we will never forget you.
     Victory has brought to a close this terrible struggle which has endured for so
long. Now we are returning to the United States and our homes to enjoy the years of
undisturbed prosperity and happiness that await us all. There are those of our comrades
who will remain with you when the rest have gone. Those who have given in the fullest
measure their devotion to the noble cause lie resting in your cemetery under the flags
of our two countries. You have mourned with us in our grief in the loss of our young
men; you have buried their graves with beautiful flowers and have paid them many high
tributes.
     Now at this hour of our departure we have the consolation in knowing that Italy
will care for them as she does for her own heroic sons, and America will glory in the 
knowledge that the bonds of friendship have been so strengthened.

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