100-year-old Harley-Davidson returns from France to honor U.S. WWI vets
By Emilie Ikeda
via the Fox News web site
MOBILE, Ala. – Christophe de Goulaine presses a small button to prime the carburetor, then gives the starter a kick. It doesn't work. Again, he thrusts his body up and down, foot on the lever. Third time is the charm — the 100-year old Harley-Davidson 1000 18-J motorcycle starts.
Pierre Lauvergeat (left) and Christophe de Goulaine with their 100-year old Harley-Davidson 1000 18-J motorcycle. Their WW1CC Partner Project will travel 5,000 miles across the U.S., honoring Americans who laid down their lives in WWI to assist France.“This is a time machine,” de Goulaine told Fox News. No, not in the literal sense, but the WWI-era motorcycle paints an accurate picture of life in the early 20th century.
It was one of an estimated 20,000 olive green Harley-Davidson motorcycles used by American soldiers in the Great War.
French motorcycle enthusiasts de Goulaine and Pierre Lauvergeat spent the past year renovating it. Still, the bike largely holds true to its origins with the same engine, frame and seat it left the factory with.
“It was a non-runner, it was in terrible condition,” de Goulaine said, while showing pictures of bike parts in boxes. “Now the bike is on the road, and we’ll have a little road test for about 5,000 miles.”
5,000 miles — not a typo.
The Model J and its sidecar rolled onto American soil for the first time in a century, kick-starting a nationwide repatriation tour this week.
The pair of Frenchmen are riding from Alabama to Florida, up to Wisconsin, and west to California in the refurbished antique.
Read more: 100-year-old Harley-Davidson returns from France to honor American WWI vets
The Sacred Twenty -- the first twenty nurses accepted as a part of the Navy Nurse Corps in 1908.
Navy Cross Nurses: Inspiring Heroism During the Influenza Epidemic of 1918
By Miranda Halpin
Staff Writer
On the front lines during World War One women often were seen as the ultimate caretakers, that allowed men to continue to fight after being wounded. The army was the first branch of the military to allow women to serve as nurses and receive proper recognition for their service. On May 13, 1908 the US Navy followed suit after the United States Congress passed the Naval Appropriations Bill. On that fateful day the “Sacred Twenty” became the first official female nurses of the United States Navy.
The “Sacred Twenty” refers to the first twenty nurses who originally had begun taking exams in order to be a part of the Navy Nurse Corps at the time. Two women, Ester Hasson and Leanah H. Sutcliffe Higbee, were the first two official members of the corps and continued to be the core of the organization throughout World War One. Hasson was the first chief and Higbee was the second superintendent.
These women would eventually lead over 1,500 women as active duty nurses during World War One. Only four of these women were ever awarded the Navy Cross for their courageous service; only a startling number of eight recipients in total during the war.
Read more: Navy Cross Nurses: Inspiring Heroism During the Influenza Epidemic of 1918
From the World War I Centennial News Podcast
Historian Corner:
Dr. Jay Winter on the Cultural Impact of WWI
In June 29th's WW1 Centennial News Podcast, Episode 78, renowned historian and author Dr. Jay Winter spoke with host Theo Mayer about the profound cultural impact of World War I, particularly on remembrance and war memorial design. The following is transcript of the interview:
Theo Mayer: Jay, you've been focusing on World War I since before the Centennial. How did you come to focus on this time period?
Jay Winter: Again, studying the first World War in 1965 when I was an undergraduate at Columbia University, the first World War struck me as Europe's Vietnam. So it was the contemporary echoes of the war in Vietnam that affected my choice of subject and indeed is part of the explanation for the vast expansion of first World War studies from the 1970s on. 
Dr. Jay WinterTheo Mayer: Well, now we've talked with a number historians and others about the many changes that this period brought around. In fact, we've been referring to it as "The War That Changed The World." Would you agree with that?
Jay Winter: Absolutely, the technology of information and images was revolutionized. One of the leading revolutionaries was the Kodak company, who put in the hands of ordinary soldiers the Kodak vest pocket camera that made it impossible for armies to enforce their regulations that soldiers shouldn't have images of war. They should simply fight and let the propaganda agents take care of that. In some ways, what the first World War did was to open up ordinary soldiers' vision of what war is, including American soldiers of course, and prepare the ground for the fact that you can't control images. It's the prehistory of Abu Ghraib in Iraq.
Theo Mayer: Fascinating, and Jay, in some of your writings, you're specifically talking about World War I and how it changed the way we mourn our dead. Could you elaborate on that?
Jay Winter: The first World War produced 10 million dead men, either killed in combat or died from disease, and of those, five million have no known graves. It's as true for the American armies, as it's true for others. War has always been a killing machine, but what 1914-18 did because of artillery was to turn it into a vanishing act. The issue of missing soldiers, soldiers who died but no one has a trace of them, becomes universal in the first World War. It's the birth of the war of the disappeared, and it's also the moment when a number of different countries all attempted to represent this revolution through creating tombs for unknown warriors. In other words, not people who disappear, but a body that doesn't have a name. And it's those that we honor as in Arlington Cemetery.
Theo Mayer: Well, you're certainly right about that. In the thousands of locales of World War I memorials around the country, the names of the lost sort of formed the central theme for the communities and for the memorials. Is that also true in Europe?
Jay Winter: Very much so. The names are all that really mattered. This is a phrase that the British poet Rudyard Kipling who lost his son too, who literally vanished during the Battle of Loos, and his body has never been found. He put that in all of the Commonwealth, initially imperial, but now Commonwealth war graves, cemeteries, "Their name shall liveth forever more, because there's nothing left." Artillery killed 80% of the men who died in the first World War. It was mechanized, assembly line, machine-run killing. Four years of war, the biblical message that we all return to dust, was relived with a savage irony attached to it. The notion of honoring the dead meant honoring an individual who once walked by your side and who now simply vanished from the face of the Earth.
Warriors in Khaki: Wyoming Indian Doughboys in the Great War
By Douglas R. Cubbison
Curator, Wyoming Veterans Memorial Museum
The Wyoming Veterans Memorial Museum opened the Cowboy State’s Centennial Exhibit on “Wyoming in the Great War” on April 6, 2017. Among the myriad topics studied in preparation for this exhibit, was the service of Wyoming Indians in the Great War, particularly from the Arapaho and Shoshone Nations on the Wind River Reservation.
While performing this research, we encountered Fullerton Leonard Waldo, a civilian service worker who helped Doughboys in France, who published a book on his experiences in 1918, entitled: “America at the Front.” Waldo wrote, ““Red Indians from Wyoming or Colorado were stoics of the high explosive shells and the poison gas as if the calumet went round at the council-fire or the drums beat to a dance.” This quote, rightfully considered racist and degrading today, was still valuable, for Waldo had clearly seen Indians from Wyoming fighting on the Front Lines of France. This quote served as the impetus to begin our museum’s effort to comprehend the role played by Indian Doughboys from our State.
The 1913 Citizenship Expedition at Wind River Indian Reservation, October 11, 1913 - Wanamaker Collection, Mathers Museum of World Cultures, Indiana University, Bloomington, IndianaThe Eastern Shoshone Treaties of 1863 and 1868 established the Wind River Reservation for the Shoshone Nation, in the heart of the Wind River Valley in central Wyoming. Fort Washakie was established by the U.S. Army to safeguard the Reservation and serve as the Shoshone Agency. The Shoshones were steadfast supporters of the United States, and Chief Washakie led as many as 160 warriors to join General George Crook at Clear Creek (modern Sheridan) on June 14, 1876- Chief Washakie’s men would fight with skill and courage at Rosebud Creek three days later.
When the Arapahos had been forced to yield to reservation life following the Great Sioux War of 1876, Chief Washakie permitted them to settle on Wind River Reservation, so that they could remain in their beloved Powder River country. Fort Washakie had only been closed as a U.S. Army installation as late as 1909. The 1913 Population of Wind River Indian Reservation was relatively small – a mere 1,697 from both tribes, men and women.
Read more: Warriors in Khaki: Wyoming Indian Doughboys in the Great War
Belleau Wood attained iconic status via training, luck, and post-war focus
By Tony Perry
Special to the United States World War One Centennial Commission web site
While much of America may prefer to forget World War I, the U.S. Marine Corps is dedicated to keeping alive the story of Belleau Wood, the battle in June 1918 that changed the course of the war.
The Chicago Tribune headline about Belleau Wood on June 6, 1918: Marines Smash HunsHistorians often list Belleau Wood with the 1805 battle against the Barbary Coast pirates and the 1945 flag-raising on Iwo Jima as among those iconic moments that shaped both the public perception of the Marine Corps and the Marines’ view of themselves.
A hundred years on, the Marine teach the lessons of Belleau Wood to recruits. During bayonet training, for example, they learn about Sgt. Major Ernest Janson, a Medal of Honor recipient who used his bayonet to kill two of his enemy and force others to flee on the first day of the fight for Belleau Wood.
Each year Marines newly assigned to the 5th Regiment, some merely teenagers, receive a decoration called the fourragere – the same decoration bestowed by the French government upon Marines after Belleau Wood. The French hold an annual ceremony to show appreciation for the Marines stopping the Germans from reaching Paris.
The 2nd U.S. Division that blunted the German drive was composed of both soldiers and Marines. Because of the positioning of the U.S. troops on the battlefield, the Marines bore the initial brunt of the German assault. Army troops have their own story of bravery at Belleau Wood but the Marine Corps is dedicated to retelling the story of how the green Americans thwarted their enemy.
An anonymous blogster under the nom-de-Internet of Angry Staff Officer has urged the Army to follow suit: “I’ve never encountered a Marine who didn’t know where Belleau Wood was or what happened on Iwo Jima. This should be the model.”
Read more: Belleau Wood attained iconic status via training, luck, and post-war focus
“I Hate To Write” gives mother's perspective on cataclysmic changes of WWI
By Paul White
Special to the United States World War One Centennial Commission
“I Hate To Write” is the story of my great grandmother Edith Agnes MacDonald McCormick an Irish immigrant, a mother raising three sons in NYC in the early 1900’s through WWI. Edith is a woman of courage and fortitude and through her “Record”, she provides a compelling, extraordinarily personal glimpse into NYC family life, but also the events occurring at the turn of the century through the cataclysmic changes of WWI.
Paul WhiteWhy the title “I Hate to Write”? Because these three words begin Edith’s diary and though she may say she hates to write, she writes marvelously. This is a story of family, courage, faith, war and terrible personal loss.
Edith opens our eyes to a time when flight was a breathtaking novelty. It was a time prior to air conditioning, when horses were dying in the sweltering heat of New York summers, when people sought summer relief in the seashore cottages of Staten Island. Edith’s day to day thoughts are illuminating, as she comments upon such events as Theodore Roosevelt and the Panama Canal, the Russo-Sino War, Peary’s discovery of the North Pole, our entry to and involvement in WWI and more.
The patriotic zeal and the support for her country and its allies that Edith exudes is compelling. Equally compelling is Edith’s concern for her three sons as America is increasingly drawn into the war in Europe. Edith’s concern for her two older sons was justified as both John and his younger brother Paul enlisted in the army shortly after President Wilson declared war.
Official records of the National Guard of the United States for the State of New York certify that John Kernan McCormick, 7th Regiment New York Infantry & National Guard (nicknamed the “silk stocking” unit) was honorably discharged from the National Guard by reason of being drafted into the military service of the United States, August 5, 1917. John was soon sent to Camp Wadsworth along with other silk stocking sons of New York‘s upper crust society as part of the newly formed “107th” Regiment, 27th Division, sent to France, led by General John O’Ryan. At that time, John was 26 years old and employed as a lawyer.
Read more: “I Hate To Write” gives mother's perspective on cataclysmic changes of WWI
Winning Design Selected For New Native American Veterans Memorial
By Mikaela Lefrak
via the WAMU radio web site
When Harvey Pratt got the call telling him he’d been selected to design a new memorial to Native American veterans in Washington, D.C., he was in shock.
“My wife and I just sat there looking at one another, like, what do we do now? What’s going to happen?” Pratt said.
Harvey Pratt lives in Guthrie, OK. He spent over 50 years working in law enforcement and creating art in his off-hours.On Tuesday morning, June 26, the National Museum of the American Indian made the public announcement about Pratt’s selection, freeing him to finally share the good news with his community in Oklahoma. He’s a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, and a Southern Cheyenne chief.
Pratt’s design, entitled “Warriors Circle of Honor,” was selected out of an initial pool of 120 submissions. A jury whittled them down to five finalists, and then chose Pratt’s unanimously. The memorial will be located on museum grounds, just off the National Mall.
“Most Americans, and people around the world, are not aware of this very strong tradition of service in the military by Native Americans,” said Rebecca Trautmann, the memorial project curator for the American Indian Museum.
Native people serve in the U.S. Military at a higher per capita rate than any other ethnic group. More than 154,000 Native American veterans are alive today, according to the 2010 census.
Pratt is a veteran himself. He enlisted in the Marines in 1962 after his first year of college (“it wasn’t going well”) and shipped out to Vietnam in the spring of 1963.
He said he made the decision to join the military so that he could follow in the footsteps of his uncle, who served in World War II and the Korean War. “He’d been wounded so many times and has so much shrapnel in his body,” Pratt said. “He just carried on. He’s a real warrior.”
Pratt said he hopes his memorial design will make native veterans who served in any of the military’s five branches feel welcome. “Native people, we’re the same, but we’re different,” he explained.
Read more: Winning Design Selected For New Native American Veterans Memorial
NY Cardinal, Guard Remember 'Fighting Father Duffy'
By By Col. Richard Goldenberg
via the Military.com web site
NEW YORK -- Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York joined the National Guard's top chaplain in Times Square on Wednesday, June 27, to salute the Army's most famous chaplain: New York National Guard Lt. Col. Francis P. Duffy.
New York Army National Guard Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Scott Ehler, left, introduces the official party to commemorate the life and career of New York Army National Guard Chaplain Father Francis P. Duffy at Times Square June 27, 2018. Ehler joined with Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, WWI National Commissioner Dr. Libby O’Connell and the National Guard’s senior chaplain, Chaplain (Brig. Gen.) Kenneth “Ed” Brandt to commemorate Duffy’s service in WWI. (U.S. Army National Guard photo/Jean Kratzer)Dolan and Chaplain (Brig. Gen.) Kenneth "Ed" Brandt, who also serves as one of the Army's Deputy Chief of Chaplains, marked the anniversary of Duffy's death on June 26, 1932, by laying a wreath at the memorial to Father Duffy erected in Times Square in 1937.
Duffy, a member of the New York National Guard's 69th Infantry Regiment, was famed as leader and counselor to the Irish-Americans who served in the unit during World War I. He was also known for his good works at home.
When he died an estimated 50,000 New Yorkers lined the funeral procession route from St. Patrick's Cathedral to his burial site in the Bronx.
"Father Duffy was one of those chaplains who allowed his ministry to follow the Soldiers," Brandt said. "In true chaplain fashion he cared about the person more than the ideology. Father Duffy served all, regardless of religion, seeing each person as a child of God."
"I am so grateful that in the middle of this part of the world, New York City, would stand the statue of the priest who exemplified so radiantly that love of God and love of country," Dolan said.
Read more: NY Cardinal, Guard Remember 'Fighting Father Duffy'
Immigrants played a major role in winning World War I
By Gordon C. Morse
via The Virginian-Pilot newspaper pilotonline.com web site
Courtemont-Varennes, France — It may have happened 100 years ago, but the more time you spend with the first world war, the more it closes in on the present.
You want to kick around immigration? You want to witness an argument? Then wade into the thicket of American politics in the early years of the 20th century and see the discussion then, in the aftermath of one of the greatest spans of immigration in the nation’s history.
Gordon C. MorseHow were we going to make this work as a nation? No one really knew. With people arriving from here, there and everywhere, flooding the cities, entering the rural interior, it became a source of social bewilderment and sharp political division.
Then America looked up in 1917 and said, Oh, we might have to join a raging, ongoing war on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean — from whence many of us came. It was a previously unimaginable choice that rapidly became compelling.
In the third year of the Great War, when America decided to participate, we had the regular army — what there was of it. “With 108,000 officers and men,” writes Patricia O’Toole, in her new biography of Woodrow Wilson, “The Moralist,” the U.S. Army “was on par with the army of Montenegro.”
National Guard divisions would help, but we needed millions of Americans in uniform, not tens of thousands. A draft would have to make up the difference.
That’s how the “National Army” emerged, an induction-based collection of divisions topped with professional military leadership. Among the first to get ready and enter the fighting was the 77th Division, based in New York, and that involved an amalgam of ethnic backgrounds.
Pulling people together and training them became a business of Americans meeting Americans, from sea to shining sea — and it started with being able to talk to each other, says historian Ed Lengel.
Read more: Immigrants played a major role in winning World War I
From the World War I Centennial News Podcast
Historian Corner:
Theodore Roosevelt and the First World War
In June 22nd’s WW1 Centennial News Podcast, Episode 77, Historian David Pietrusza, the author of the book: TR's Last War - Theodore Roosevelt, The Great War and a Journey of Triumph and Tragedy, spoke with host Theo Mayer about Theodore Roosevelt, his role in World War I, and the suffering that the war ultimately inflicted on him and his family. The following is a transcript of the interview:
Theo Mayer: Welcome to the Historian Corner. Now, we've talked a lot about the many amazing men and women of this amazing period in history and today we're gonna focus on a historical figure whose name we all know. A really interesting man and one of the biggest personalities of the turn of the century. The man who was president of the United States from 1901 to 1909- President Theodore Roosevelt. With us is historian David Pietrusza, who's here to help us understand the man and his role leading up to and during the war that changed the world. David, thank you for joining us today.
David Pietrusza: Thank you.
Theo Mayer: Let me start by briefly asking you to describe Roosevelt's two terms ending five years before the war broke out, so we have some context.
Teddy Roosevelt served as the 26th President of the United States between 1901 and 1909. At the time of the First World War, he still loomed large in the American consciousness.David Pietrusza: They're just incredibly energetic. TR just exhausts the American public and observers of his administration and himself. If he's not busting trusts, he's creating national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, passing a pure food and drug act, regulating the railroads and their rates, creating the Panama Canal, seizing that land from Colombia, circumventing Congress, getting the job done by hook or crook, resolving the Russo-Japanese war and winning the Nobel Peace Prize and sending the Great White Fleet around the world. He's just so busy all the time and when he's not doing that, he's reading a book a day and raising a brood of about five children, running all over Washington, riding horses and fording the Rock Creek. Just really fascinating the American public, the American media, like no president had in a very long time, maybe if ever.
Theo Mayer: Pretty outspoken as well and as America was not joining the war, and as the election of '16 happened, he was pretty outspoken about that, wasn't he?
David Pietrusza: At first, oddly enough, he's quite circumspect. When the Germans invade Belgium, he sounds almost Wilsonian about, "Well, the Germans have to do what they have to do. Nations have to do that," but then, particularly when the Lusitania is sunk, he is absolutely outraged and he verbally declares war on Germany and on the Wilson administration which he thinks is not doing enough, not being tough enough with Germany and not preparing for a war. If war comes, you should be prepared to fight it- the old "speak softly and carry a big stick."
Theo Mayer: He actually campaigned to become the general of the armies during all this when we finally declared war, didn't he?
Read more: Podcast Article- Teddy Roosevelt Interview Pietrusza
From the World War I Centennial News Podcast
War Tech: Ice City
In June 22nd's WW1 Centennial News Podcast, Episode 77, host Theo Mayer describes the “Ice City”, a refuge and network of tunnels carved within a glacier by the Austro-Hungarian army. The following is a transcript of that segment:
In 1916 the Austro-Hungarians build Ice City within Marmolada glacier, pictured here today.
“We're headed back to the high Dolomite Mountains, where the Austro-Hungarians and the Italian armies fought bitterly during World War I, and we're gonna look at the Ice City. Now, fighting in those craggy steep mountains created a set of logistical problems quite unlike those of the muddy, flooded field of Flanders or the chalky wooded terrain of Northern France. Italian and Austro-Hungarian soldiers needed to fight off hypothermia, frostbite and rock slides as they fought each other from stalemate to bloody stalemate. The armies had to carry, drag, and hoist artillery way up the mountain to 12,000 feet, and when the artillery was fired across the enemy, it didn't have mud to sink into as it exploded. Instead, it sheared off sharp rocks and sent stone shards flying in all directions. Now, way up in the rocky crags, digging trenches just wasn't an option, so they went inside the mountain and underground. The Italians built outposts attached to the sheer cliff sides while the Austro-Hungarians took to tunneling deep inside of the mountains and the glaciers- including what's known today as the Ice City. From the summer of 1916, Austrian lieutenant Leo Handle led an effort to build tunnels deep into the glacier to avoid both Italian fire and the unstable environment of alpine warfare. After more than 10 months of hard work, over seven miles of tunnels had been dug out of the ice, providing room for more than 200 soldiers with barracks, kitchens, chapels and food stores for good measure. To help the soldiers navigate the endless web of tunnels, signs were made, featuring the names of celebrities, world cities and fairytales.
Cross section of Ice City
Mr. Howard Schultz delivers remarks.
Starbucks Chairman co-hosts WW1CC event to support National WWI Memorial in Washington DC
By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, United States World War One Centennial Commission
On Monday, June 18th, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz endorsed the new National WWI Memorial in Washington DC, by headlining an event on the USS Intrepid Air, Sea and Space Museum in New York City.
As keynote speaker, he stated "America honors veterans of every major war with a National Memorial in Washington, DC except one, World War I. Thanks to the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission, we will finally honor our World War I veterans, a tribute long overdue".
U.S. World War I Centennial Commission Vice Chair Edwin Fountain gives remarks.Schultz, who has served as Starbucks CEO, Executive Chairman, and global strategist since the coffee chain's beginning, is the son of a former U.S Army veteran. During his tenure, the Starbucks company has been a major supporter of veterans issues, and veteran hiring.
Mr. Schultz was joined by Centennial Commission special advisor, Admiral Mike Mullen, USN (Ret), who served as the 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Admiral Mullen stated "I am honored to work with the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission in such a worthy and essential undertaking for our Nation. The National World War I Memorial will honor the sacrifice of our World War I veterans to ensure that the war is never forgotten"
The gala event brought together more than two hundred people from across the spectrum of business, philanthropy, military, and cultural communities. Among the guests attending the event were creative-advertising legend Robert Lenz, as well as Sandra Pershing, the granddaughter-in-law to General John Pershing, Mr. Wes Moore, CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, and the Honorable Carol Moseley Braun, former U.S. Ambassador and U.S. Senator.
Read more: Starbucks Chairman co-hosts WW1CC event to support National WWI Memorial in Washington DC
Members from the winning WWI Prize team in the Junior Division pose with WW1CC Education Coordinator James Taub (center). They created the project entitled "Kaiser Wilhelm the Second, King George the Fifth, and Czar Nicholas the Second: the conflict of compromised cousins."
National History Day Awards National Prizes for WWI-themed Student Projects
By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, United States World War One Centennial Commission
National History Day (NHD) is a nonprofit educational organization that promotes the teaching and learning of history in middle and high schools around the world through a variety of programs for teachers and students.
The National History Day Contest is NHD's biggest program. Established in 1974, the National History Day Contest encourages more than half a million middle and high school students around the world to conduct original research on historical topics of interest.
For the contest, students in grades 6-12 present projects at the local and affiliate levels. The students create entries as an individual, or a group, in one of five categories: Documentary, Exhibit, Paper, Performance or Website.
The contests is huge -- it takes place in all fifty states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, South Korea, China, South Asia, and Central America. Students first show their projects at the local level. Then, they compete in a series of regional contests, with top entries advancing to state/affiliate contests. The top two entries in each category and division are invited to compete at the national-level Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest at the University of Maryland at College Park.
Read more: National History Day Awards National Prizes for WWI-themed Student Projects