On April 16, the National World War I Memorial site in Washington, D.C., was unveiled in a livestreamed ceremony of the Inaugural Raising of the Flag. The event covered the history of World War I and included numerous speakers whose family members served in the war. Viewers learned about the “Doughboys,” the “Hello Girls” and other veterans who gave their service to the country. The Binghamton University community played a role in this event, as a song about the “Hello Girls,” which was written in Johnson City, was performed at the ceremony. Click here to learn more about the Hello Girls, and the music made in cooperation between the Goodwill Theatre, the Schorr Family Firehouse Stage in Johnson City and the Prospect Theater Company in New York City that was part of the event.

As she was helping her parents move from their home a decade ago, Carolyn Timbie of Atkinson, NH stumbled upon what she calls “an amazing treasure trove” of items from World War I — things her grandmother Grace Banker had saved from her time in WWI as the commander of the Hello Girls telephone operators. Some 60 years after Banker’s death, Timbie is now helping historians and U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan of NH understand the work done by Signal Corps women during the war, when they became known as the Hello Girls. Click here to read more, and learn about the proposed Congressional Gold Medal to honor the service and legacy of the Hello Girls.

Author Jeff Gottesfeld had, in his forties, gotten into the habit of visiting national cemeteries on Memorial Day. A chance encounter in 1915 at Los Angeles National Cemetery with several headstones marked “UNKNOWN” sparked an idea: a children’s book about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and “the Tomb Guards who have kept watch there every minute of every day since July 2, 1937.”  Click here to learn more about how this project took shape in unexpected ways, and how the author learned about himself as well as the Tomb in the process of writing Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

In 2018 thirteen people, including teachers, veterans, historians, members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, all from varying backgrounds, thought that Erie County should be commemorating the American engagement in World War One. Each of them had a distinct connection to WWI. The outcome: a series of projects illuminating the county’s role in the Great War. Their efforts culminated in the last thing that they anticipated at the beginning: a book. Click here to read more about the creation of the volume, and how it will support the perpetual maintenance of the World War One Memorial in Erie County.

Author Chris Dubbs notes wryly that he occupies “a narrow slice of scholarship in the history of World War 1—its journalism. Having so focused a view on such a vast subject means that I filter all the drama of WW1 through the reporters who covered it.”  Dubbs’ fourth book on WWI journalists came out in April 2021—American Women Report World War I: An Anthology of Their Journalism. As Dubbs himself notes: “A fourth book on WW1 journalists, you ask? Would not three, or two, or even one, have been enough?” Click here to learn why Dubbs was compelled to add another volume to his canon, and how he needed to “draw out the full picture of women’s role, a news story that was overlooked by male correspondents.”

George Whitehair, enjoying his twilight career as a Writer, Editor, and Researcher, “had just finished compiling a fun and upbeat book of short stories highlighting the contributions of immigrants” when a good friend mentioned that he might want to add Dr. Frank Boston (left) to his list. Out of that small suggestion has come a large project to recognize the accomplishments of a remarkable individual in both war and peace. Click here to read more, and learn about an amazing individual: “the first veteran African-American in the US to start both a hospital and ambulance corps, both of which are in operation today.“

The Friends of the Frankfort Public Library presents “In the Trenches of World War I” during the month of May. The group has been working with several entities to discover compelling stories of WWI and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier located in Arlington National Cemetery. As well as onsite exhibitions and programs throughout the month, the event offers a virtual presentation on May 6 by military historian and best-selling author, Patrick O’Donnell. He will discuss one of his latest books, The Unknowns, The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home. Click here to learn more about the program, and how to register to attend the virtual presentation that intends to illuminate the saga behind the creation of the monument and animate the tomb by giving voice to those who served in WWI.

Writer Allyn Lawrence notes that “If you asked people a reason for the United States of America entering the First World War, one of the most common answers would be the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.” However, Lawrence also notes that “…the Lusitania was just one of the thousands of ships sunk by the German Imperial Navy during World War One. Yet, to this day, it is remembered as a major precipitant of the United States joining the war. Why is this? Why was the sinking of the Lusitania so controversial? Why was this event so important?” Click here to read more, and learn how some individuals who went down with the ship may have had an outside impact on public opinion in America.

Although it was fought thousands of miles away, WWI war transformed the United States from a relatively provincial power on the world stage to a full-fledged global, military-industrial leader, held together by a newly powerful federal government and charged with confident patriotism. WW1 America, on view through May 30, 2021 at the Irving, CA Archives and Museum, also shows that there were darker sides of the American experience during the years 1914 to 1919. Click here to read more, and discover how this exhibition reveals that WWI “was nonetheless always in dialogue, sometimes violently, with the day’s upheavals, shaping the nation in profound and lasting ways. Indeed, so many issues from this period cascade down the years to our own time.”

“When 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip fired two shots from a pistol in the streets of Sarajevo on a late June morning in 1914, Vermonters had no idea what troubles the incident would trigger for the people of their state.” So begins writer Mark Bushnell’s look at how World War I changed life for the citizens of The Green Mountain State. Writing on the VT DIGGER web site, Bushnell notes that initially “Vermonters remained unscathed by the horrors enveloping so much of the world, but their good fortune didn’t last. Events finally dragged Vermont men off to war, sparked the deadliest epidemic of the last century, and led to a crackdown on civil liberties in the state.” Click here to read the entire article.

When one thinks of war, snow doesn’t usually come into the picture. But part of World War I was fought in the Vosges, a mountain range in France. Soldiers had to contend with cold and snow as well as the other dangers of war. The snow presented challenges that didn’t exist in other areas. How would the soldiers get supplies, ammo, medicine, and transport their injured soldiers? Their horses found it difficult to move through snow, and when they did, it was slow going. Click here to read more, and learn how military sled dogs came into the picture, and became vital in winter theatres during World War I.

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

Our Doughboy MIA this month is PVT Jerry Harris of the 120thInfantry/30^th Division.

Jerry Harris was born 16 May 1896 and raised in the town of Roanoke Rapids in Halifax County, North Carolina, the second of four children born to Sarah and Frank Harlour. He was working in a cotton mill when he enlisted in the North Carolina National Guard on 26 May 1917, being assigned to Company H, 3rd N.C. Infantry Regiment. When his unit was called into federal service that summer, it became Company H of the 120th Infantry, 30th Division. With them Harris traveled to France aboard the SS Bohemian on 12 May 1918.

The 30^th Division, alongside the 27^th, was assigned to the US 2^nd Corps and brigaded with the British. They fought in the Ypres-Lyes Sector that summer and in the final Somme Offensive as part of the great ‘final offensive’ by the allies of the war. It was during this offensive that Harris was killed in action on 29 September 1918.  Currently, no other specific details of his death are known, but following the war the Graves Registration Service was unable to locate his battlefield grave and thus he is still listed as officially missing in action and his name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Somme American Cemetery at Bony, France. His family also erected a memorial stone for him at Cedarwood Cemetery in Roanoke Rapids.

Want to help us dig deeper into the case of PVT Harris? Consider a tax deductible donation to our non-profit organization and help us solve his case! Simply visit www.ww1cc.org/mia today and consider a gift. Every dollar helps us find out what happened to our missing boys, and YOU get to help.

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

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