Grandson Perry James (left) will receive the World War I Purple Heart medal of his grandfather Perry Loyd (right) in Army ceremonies October 13.

A Purple Heart for Sergeant Loyd

By Renee Wedges, Wallace McBride, and Chris Isleib
Special to the United States World War One Centennial Commission web site

There will be a very special event on October 13th at the U.S. Army Training Center (TRADOC), at Fort Jackson, in Columbia South Carolina.

Brigadier General Milford H. Beagle, Jr., Commanding General of TRADOC, will host a Purple Heart Presentation Ceremony in honor of Sergeant Perry Loyd, a deceased World War I Veteran.

Sgt. Perry Loyd served in the 371st Infantry Colored Regiment within the 93rd Division at what was then known as Camp Jackson; he was wounded in action in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, a major part of the final Allied offensive of World War I that stretched along the entire Western Front from September to November, 1918.

Sergeant Loyd never received his Purple Heart, which was secured a few years ago by his grandson, Perry James. Mr. James will accept the medal in honor of SGT Loyd.

The saga of SGT Loyd, and of Perry James research into his grandfather is a remarkable one.

Mr. James interest in his grandfather was rekindled after visiting his grave, and learning that a Purple Heart he had earned had never been delivered. He set about correcting that problem, but history had erased many of the records of his grandfather's life. His military records were destroyed by a fire in St. Louis, while many of his personal effects were lost in a house fire years later.

Read more: A Purple Heart for Sergeant Loyd

Introducing the "Bells of Peace" Smartphone App

By Theo Mayer
Chief Technologist, United States World War One Centennial Commission

There is a backstory.
When we started to develop the Bells of Peace National bell tolling initiative, we met and received advice from others, who also are or have created "bell tolling initiatives". In an early meeting, one of these sage supporters  mentioned the challenges they faces due to the increasing scarcity of bells in America.

"Why don't we make an App with bells in it" one of the people at the meeting suggested. And here it is.

As we got into it, we realized that there was an opportunity for a lot more than simply bells. It occurred to us that the app would make a fantastic NEWS channel for the Centennial of The Armistice and so we built that in. That way we can send you information about  ACE (Armistice Centennial Events), links to live streams we learn about, point you to resources and more.

We also know from working with the community for the past 5 years, that people want to share THEIR commemoration efforts with others - so we built in a sort of "special historic event social media channel". This is an experiment, but one that we think is worth trying. A national history event has never had it's own social media channel before. What that means is that anyone who has the app, can use their smartphone to create and post articles with still images and videos directly from the app - even if they don't have a social media account. The posts automatically come into a "dashboard" at the commission, where we can curate the content (we don't want inappropriate posts after all) and push it out to the app, and onto the upcoming commission web page that will shortly appear at ww1cc.org/armistice.

And for everyone who does have a social media account, whether on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Youtube, if you tag your post with #tollthebell, it will also come into our dashboard and we will add those posts to the national conversation.

Following are details about the app and what you get. We invite you to download it from the ITunes or Google Play app stores

What do you get with the Bells of Peace Participation App?

Read more: Welcome to the Bells of Peace App

Meet the hero carrier pigeon that saved US troops during a WWI battle 100 years ago

By Elizabeth McLaughlin
via the ABC News web site

In the third floor hallway of the Pentagon, just outside the Army Chief of Staff's office, there is a pigeon.

Walking the corridors, the lifelike pigeon stands out among the cases of military history that display Revolutionary-era bayonets, Civil War uniforms and replicas of helicopters used in Vietnam. Upon closer inspection, one might notice the pigeon is so life-like because it has been taxidermied. It's also missing one leg.

The military carrier pigeon "President Wilson" conducted a heroic flight to deliver a life-saving message to U.S. troops on October 5, 1918.That pigeon's name is "President Wilson" -- an unsung hero of World War I that made a daring flight to save U.S. troops exactly 100 years ago on Friday.

President Wilson was a military carrier pigeon, one of many in the U.S. Army Signal Corps that delivered messages between commanders and troops on the front lines. The pigeons were especially useful tools of communication during World War I when the telephone and telegraph were still unreliable new technologies.

According to U.S. military accounts recorded in the U.S. Army Center of Military History and the National Archives, Wilson was born in France and first assigned to the U.S. Army's newly formed Tank Corps, delivering messages to Tank Battalions commanded by Col. George S. Patton in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel.

But soon afterward, Wilson was assigned to an infantry unit conducting operations near Grandpré during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

Read more: Meet the hero carrier pigeon that saved US troops during a WWI battle 100 years ago

A major league baseball player died in battle 100 years ago

By Jim Caple
via the Washington Post newspaper web site

Eddie Grant in his New York Giants uniform“The Germans won’t be able to win a game from us,’’ he wrote to his sister Florence in 1918, according to Smithsonian magazine. “We would knock old Hindenburg out of the box in the first inning.’’

Eddie Grant, in fact, had appeared in the World Series, with the 1913 New York Giants. He was a Harvard-educated lawyer. And after his playing career ended, at age 33, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, leading to his most lasting distinction: He was shot while leading an effort to rescue surrounded units of the 77th Division in the Argonne Forest in northeastern France on Oct. 5, 1918, becoming the first major leaguer killed in action in World War I.

Maj. Charles Wittlesey, Grant’s friend who led the 77th Division known from the battle as “the Lost Battalion,” said of Grant: “When that shell burst and killed that boy, America lost one of the finest types of manhood I have ever known.’’

Grant first appeared in the majors in 1905 after graduating from Harvard, where he played baseball and basketball. He would play 990 games as an infielder through 1915, with Cleveland, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and the Giants. He wasn’t a great hitter —- his career average was .249 with just five home runs —- but he was regarded as a decent fielder at third base.

He also lived up to his nickname, “Harvard Eddie,’’ by earning a law degree from the university in 1909. And after retiring from baseball, he became a practicing lawyer. Less than two years later, the United States entered World War I and Grant enlisted. “I believe there is no greater duty than I owe for being that which I am — an American citizen,’’ he wrote to a friend.

Grant was killed 100 years ago Friday, at age 35, while leading the H Company of the 307th Infantry against German forces. He was one of eight major leaguers who were killed or died while serving for the U.S. military during World War I, and one of more than 50,000 Americans killed in combat during the war. According to various reports, he was badly weakened by bronchitis during the battle but refused to leave the front lines. When the Germans started attacking his troops, Grant shouted at his men to get down on the ground, while remaining on his feet to call for stretchers.

Read more: A major league baseball player died in battle 100 years ago

National History Day^® launches Who They Were program in support of U.S. World War I Centennial Commission’s educational and commemorative efforts 

By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, United States World War One Centennial Commission

WASHINGTON - Sept 17, 2018 – National History Day^®, a partner of the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission announced the launch of Who They Were, a program that mobilizes students and educators across the country to learn about their community’s World War I story and to participate in local centennial observations.

Using the Who They Were Activity Toolkit, available at nhd.org/whotheywere, middle- and high school students can create a short narrative about their community’s World War I generation and present it at their school or at a local event. The activity can be done by individuals or groups, either in a classroom or after-school program setting, using the Who They Were Educator Guide, or as a student-driven project. Completed Who They Were narratives can be added to an online map, connecting students to the wider World War I centennial commemoration and allowing a global audience to learn about the U.S. World War I generation.

Who They Were is being launched as part of the U.S. World War I Commission’s commemorative efforts leading up to the centennial of the Armistice that ended World War I, on November 11, 2018. Educators and students can participate through the end of 2018 and into the summer of 2019, in parallel with local homecoming anniversaries and other community-based centennial events. Following the end of the centenary period, the Activity Toolkit will continue to be available online.

Read more: National History Day® launches Who They Were program in support of U.S. World War I Centennial...

New play by Martin Casella

Premiere Stages at Kean University to present “Black Tom Island”

By Nicholas Orvis
Literary Assistant and Resident Dramaturg, Premiere Stages, Kean University

Premiere Stages, the professional theatre in residence at Kean University in Union, NJ, will present the world premiere of Black Tom Island by Martin Casella from October 11-21, 2018.

The play, which will be directed by Premiere’s Producing Artistic Director John J. Wooten, is the 2017-2018 winner of the Liberty Live Commission, a program of Premiere Stages and the Liberty Hall Museum that commissions New Jersey playwrights to create original plays about significant events in the history of the state. The play will be presented at the Carriage House on the grounds of the Liberty Hall Museum.

At the center of Black Tom Island is a piece of New Jersey history that many people have either forgotten or never heard about: the explosion at Black Tom Island. The explosion was an act of sabotage and international espionage, designed to disable the weapons of an enemy during a time of war.

The year was 1916, and on the docks of Jersey City the Lehigh Valley Company had stowed several trains’ worth of valuable and dangerous materials: explosives and ammunition bound for the Great War in Europe to which the United States was not yet a party. In the dead of night on July 30 - around 2:00 a.m. - several fires sprang up suddenly, in multiple places around the train cars parked on the causeway leading to the storage facility on Black Tom Island.

At 2:08 a.m., the train cars and the barge moored nearby exploded, setting off roughly 2 million pounds of explosives. The damage was catastrophic, and it’s hard to exaggerate its scope.

Estimates in the following days put the property damage alone at $20 million (roughly $450 million today), and the tremors from the explosion were felt in neighboring states. The New York Times said that the harbor was “raked by shrapnel for hours” and that nearby Ellis Island looked “like [a] war-swept town.”

Read more: New Play about Explosion at Black Tom Island

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base remembers World War I

ByMadison Metz
Staff Writer

On Friday, September 21, the The National Museum of the Air Force, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, hosted a dedication ceremony for the new World War I Airmen Memorial. This memorial-unveiling event was held in conjunction with a weekend of World War I activities, and took place on the centennial of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

At the event, there were representatives from Belgium, Germany, Australia, Canada, and Britain, to commemorate the sacrifices of those in the air forces on both side of the war. The memorial was built, in-part, with help from the WW1CC's 100 CITIES/100 MEMORIALS program.

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive remains to be the largest, and most lethal, battle in U.S. military history. It was the last battle of the Great War, and led to the deaths of 26,722 Americans, with some 95,786 soldiers wounded.

During the battle, General Billy Mitchell led some 842 planes to the fight, and their efforts devastated the German ground forces. The air fleet played a substantial role in the victory of the Allied Forces. The fleet was comprised of forces from the United States, Belgium, France, Canada, Britain, and Australia.

Wright Patterson honored the pilots who gave the ultimate sacrifice by hosting the families of two courageous pilots, Charles Nungesser, and Gervaise Raoul Lufbery.

Nungesser was a French pilot who had over 43 air combat victories and received military decorations from France, Belgium, Montenegro, United States, Portugal, Russia, and Serbia.

Lufbery was a legendary French and American pilot who had officially 18 victories, but it is guessed that he had 25 to 60 wins according to witnesses and documents. Lufbery died in combat in 1918 buried with full military honors.

The weekend's World War I activities were many, and varied. There was a two-day fly-in event featuring authentic and replica World War I aircraft, sponsored by the museum and by the Great War Aeroplanes Association.

Activities and exhibits included:

Special thank you to Colonel Olivier Kaladjian, Air Attaché, Embassy of France, for his photos of the dedication ceremony.

Read more: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base remembers World War I

Scenes from the rededication ceremony which took place last Friday in the Bronx, NYC.

NYC Parks rededicates the Highbridge Doughboy statue in the Bronx, after remarkable restoration

By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, United States World War One Centennial Commission
and
Ryan Hegg

Commissioner Libby O’Connell joined NYC Parks Director of Art and Antiquities Jonathan Kuhn, the East Coast Doughboys, representatives from the Bronx Borough President's Office, and local high school students, in rededicating the Highbridge, Bronx Doughboy.

The beautiful statue was damaged and kept in storage for 40 years, but was painstakingly restored -- and rededicated on the Centennial of New York’s costliest weekend of fighting, during the war.

The Highbridge World War I Memorial, also known as the Highbridge Doughboy, honors the 21 local servicemen who died while serving their country in World War I.

The sculpture was originally commissioned by the Highbridge Regular Democratic Club, and was erected in 1923 in a small triangle park east of the Washington Bridge, in the Highbridge section of the Bronx. It was later moved to a small vestpocket park adjacent to the bridge, today known as Bridge Park. After suffering incidences of vandalism and damage throughout the 1970s, the sculpture was removed from public view while the pedestal remained in Bridge Park.

With support from The World War I Commission's 100 Cities/100 Memorials Grant Program and the History Channel, NYC Parks Citywide Monuments Conservation Program restored the bronze Doughboy sculpture and replicated the monument's central plaque. As part of an NYC Parks Capital project, the pedestal was relocated from Bridge Park to a redesigned site at 161st Street and Jerome Avenue and reinstalled.

Read more: NYC Parks rededicates the Highbridge Doughboy statue in the Bronx

An American doughboy from the First Division throws a hand grenade in battle during World War I along the Western Front in France on March 15, 1918.

100 Years After WWI, The National Memorial In Washington Remains Unfinished. Here’s Why.

By Jeff Schogol
via the Task and Purpose web site

Nov. 11 marks the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, but the national monument in Washington, D.C., that Congress authorized in 2014 is still just an artist’s concept that still needs money to become a reality.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approved fundraising for the a national World War I monument last year, said Dan Dayton, executive director of The United States World War I Centennial Commission. So far, donors have pledged about half of the $42 million for its construction, which is expected to be completed in November 2021 – 100 years after the opening of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, he said.

“It’s not easy, but it’s getting there nicely,” Dayton told Task & Purpose.

The First World War launched America’s entry on to the world stage as a military and financial power; it lit the fuze that blew for World War II; and it fractured the world, leaving conflicts that persist to this day, including the turmoil in the Middle East. And in many ways, it never really ended: the Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916 between the British and French turned Syria and Iraq into sectarian time bombs.

But the quest to honor the more than 2 million Doughboys who went “over there” faces an a more existential challenge than mere fundraising: While World War II is revered in the United States, the First World War is mostly forgotten in the national consciousness. When Frank Buckles, the last American World War I veteran, died in 2011, lawmakers refused to let him lie in state at the U.S. Capitol.

Read more: 100 Years After World War I, The National Memorial In Washington Remains Unfinished. Here’s Why.

Kentucky research corrects World War I tanker's record

By Karlen Morris
Special to the United States World War I Centennial Commission web site

A fragment of Corporal Morton W. Atchison's service record that survived the fire at the St. Louis NARA facility confirmed that he was buried at sea after dying abord ship.Corporal Morton W. Atchison, who died of disease during World War I, and was from Owensboro, KY. As a result of an inquiry, his name has been removed from the Tablet of the Missing at the Suresnes American Cemetery in Suresnes, France, and his fate recorded correctly.

In July of 2018 while researching deaths of members of the US Tank Corps I came across the name of a man listed as Missing in Action. I began to look for information on him and found out he was Owensboro, KY. My first step in the research process was to make a post on the History of Owensboro Facebook page looking to see if anyone was familiar with the details.

From the Facebook page I obtained copies of newspaper articles from the Messenger-Inquirer with information on his death. (I have enclosed copies of the 3 newspaper articles) From the articles it is stated that he died of disease and was buried at sea.

From here I sent a message via Facebook to the American Battlefield Monuments Commission to see what I could find out. They directed me to the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO.

Read more: Kentucky research corrects World War I tanker's record