Headstones are the last thing you expect to encounter on a runway. However, this is exactly what you will encounter if you head out to the Hilton Head International Airport in Savannah, Georgia.
The embedded grave markers are a relic of the WWII. The runway 10 of the airport has two concrete slabs embedded in it that immediately stand out due to their peculiar positioning.
The story that goes with grave markers talks of the Dotson family that used to reside in this area. The property also included the family cemetery with at least a dozen (or even up to a 100) graves.
As the WWII was at its height, the military decided to expand one of the smaller airports in the area. The plan for the new airstrips indicated that one of the new runways will run over the Dotson family cemetery. However, the military needed to construct the east-west runway, and the cemetery could not be saved.
Before the cemetery was paved over, most of the corpses were shifted to other cemeteries. But the graves of John, Catherine, and Richard Dotson, as well as a man called Daniel Hueston were left in their place untouched.
The concrete slabs embedded in the runway commemorate those who were laid to rest in that cemetery.
