Atlanta Journal-Constitution guest editorial
WWI centennial: Honoring U.S.’s sacrifice for world
By Commissioner Monique Seefried
via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As a French-born woman, I always felt a debt of gratitude to the United States. It is a gratitude shared by generations of Europeans who still remember the Americans as our liberators in two World Wars. I was raised on stories of American generosity. I read about the American volunteers who served in World War I. I know about the American Hospital in Paris and its ambulance drivers. When I immigrated to Atlanta to begin my new life as an American, I was shocked and dismayed by how little those in the U.S. knew about what their country had achieved during the first of those World Wars. U.S. intervention in World War I is perhaps this country’s greatest contribution to world peace.
When President Woodrow Wilson signed the declaration of war on April 6, 1917, Americans united in a way they never had before. In less than two years, the U.S. military grew from less than 200,000 troops to four and a half million. More than two million Americans were serving in France on November 11, 1918. Small-town farmers and Ivy League scholars enlisted. Women joined the ranks for the first time. Native Americans signed up at twice the rate of any other segment of the population. African-Americans comprised storied units such as the 369th Infantry Regiment. And 18 percent of the Americans who served were born in foreign countries.
At the outset of the war, the U.S. had few airplanes or guns, and no tanks or gas masks. Undeterred, the government expended more resources in two years than it had in the country’s first 141 years. Steel production increased by eight times. Two million Americans were put to work in industrial jobs to handle the surge.
America mobilized with an efficiency and effectiveness that surprised the world, helping bring an end to autocratic regimes across Europe. Sadly, it came at a terrible cost. In six months of combat, the U.S. lost more than 116,000 service members, a toll higher than the number of Americans lost in the Korean and Vietnam Wars combined.
Washington, D.C. – The United States Centennial Commission today announced program participants and special guests for “In Sacrifice for Liberty and Peace: Centennial Commemoration of the U.S. Entry into World War I” on April 6 at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, MO.
Washington, D.C. –- As the nation celebrates Women’s History Month in March, The United States World War I Centennial Commission remembers the indispensable role women played during World War I. The entry of the United States into the Great War had a significant impact on women, their standing in society, and their civil rights.
"We have forgotten the active role American women played in World War I , but we all remember Rosie the Riveter in World War II. Well, Rosie the Riveter had a mother, and she worked in a munitions factory too,” said United States World War I Centennial Commissioner and Chief Historian Emeritus at the History Channel, Dr. Libby O’Connell. “The Great War was transformative for women, it served as a catalyst for women’s suffrage, professionalized women in the military and helped women prove they were capable of doing work typically done by men.”
The United States World I Centennial Commission partnered with Loma Media in San Diego to create videos to educate and motivate the American public to support the creation of a Memorial to our World War I veterans.
8th Annual William E. Colby Military Writers’ Symposium. Titled “Won the War, Lost the Peace: The Centennial Legacy of World War One”, the symposium will discuss World War I and the effects it had on America and the world.
Artist Soldiers -- Artistic Expression in the First World War
This exhibition examines this form of artistic expression from two complementary perspectives: one, professional artists who were recruited by the U.S. Army; the other, soldiers who created artwork. Together they shed light on World War I in a compelling and very human way.
