Dear Friends and Colleagues:

As our nation continues to grapple with a challenge that seemingly came “out of the blue” from the COVID-19 virus, analogies have been drawn (by us as well as others) with the influenza epidemic at the end of World War I a century ago. But 99 years ago this week, a very literal “out of the blue” event was impacting America and the world, as The Great Geomagnetic Storm of May 1921 slammed the earth. Electrical currents induced by geomagnetic activity on the sun surged through telephone and telegraph lines, heating them to the point of combustion, causing fires and disrupting travel and communications all around the planet for an extended period. Another lesson from history that unexpected challenges are the rule of the universe, not the exception.

As illustrated by the period newspaper front page at left, in the autumn of 1918 our nation was engaged fiercely in two essential national campaigns: the Muse-Argonne offensive, and the fight against the terrible influenza that was sweeping the nation and world. The battle in France would lead later that year to the end of the fighting in Europe in World War I. The struggle with the epidemic would take much longer to end. In neither case was the result rapid or without tragic cost. But in both cases, American resolve, ingenuity, and teamwork brought us through the crisis stronger than ever.

As the nation goes on the offensive to get back to work again after the COVID-19 pandemic, those same resources will be called upon in new ways to achieve the same end: a strong and innovative nation ready to grow and prosper in the decades ahead.

As many of you know, we have undertaken a very ambitious and innovative project of our own. It is called the “WWI Memorial Virtual Explorer” a smartphone and tablet app that uses a new technology called “Augmented Reality”.  The app allows us to put the new National WWI Memorial being built in Washington D.C. into everyone’s pocket in a highly informative and unique way.

While the actual Memorial is still under construction, the app is ready for testing. As a part of our existing WWI Memorial “family,” your participation in trying out  the app before the general public, and providing feedback to us on both your experience and any errors you find (a process called “Beta Testing”) will help us perfect this complex and innovative project before we release it to the general public.

If you are interested in being a “beta tester” it is easy to sign up by clicking ww1cc.org/explorer.  Besides helping us, and the teachers and educators who will be using the app in the future, it should also be a lot of fun. Get your kids involved! and thank you.

We will continue providing you with World War I-themed webinars, activities, and information over the coming weeks, hoping these events and recommendations will provide some interesting, informative, and pleasant distractions.

We will be presenting another webinar on Friday, May 15, at 1pm EDT, focusing on America’s First Women Soldiers, “The Hello Girls.” Join us as we explore the incredible story of these women soldiers who helped us win WWI, and whose battle for recognition and their veterans rights continued for 60 years after the fighting stopped on the western front. It is a powerful story of heroism and empowerment set against the backdrops of WWI and the Women’s Suffrage movement.  Click here to register.

Our special guests are Dr. Elizabeth Cobbs, historian and author of the the Harvard University Press book called “The Hello Girls: America’s First Women Soldiers,” and the creative team of Cara Reichel and Peter Mills, who produced the highly acclaimed off-Broadway musical “The Hello Girls”.

As our Bonus Feature we will be screening the 6 minute Documentary short “Women in WWI” from our “How WWI Changed America”: Teaching and Learning Resource series underwritten by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Click here to sign up now for this interesting and entertaining webinar on May 15.

If you missed any of our four previous webinars (“Making the Memorial Sculpture”, “WWI Memorial Virtual App”, “Genealogy Workshop”, and “Memorial Design and Construction Update”), or want to watch one of them again, click here to find links for the videos of all the previous webinars.

At the U.S. Army hospital in Royat, France, during the World War I influenza epidemic, convalescing Doughboys wearing surgical masks (sound familiar?) gathered in the base theater to enjoy being entertained by movies from back in the states.  We don’t know what the film titles were that they watched (all silent films, remember), but we do have a few suggestions for you sheltering at home for some WWI-themed television programs which you may enjoy — surgical masks optional in your home theater, of course!

Influenza Pandemic and World War I provides an in-depth presentation by historian Nancy Bristow about the 1918 influenza pandemic and how it devastated American civilians and soldiers during the final year of World War I and beyond. She also explained why the epidemic is not memorialized like the war itself, despite causing a higher number of deaths. Ms. Bristow is the author of American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic. The National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri hosted this talk as part of their annual symposium in 1918.

Influenza Pandemic and World War I can be viewed on the C-SPAN3 web site here.

The Great War, a three-part series on the PBS program American Experience, draws on unpublished diaries, memoirs and letters to tell the rich and complex story of World War I through the voices of nurses, journalists, aviators and the American troops who came to be known as “Doughboys.” The series explores the experiences of African-American and Latino soldiers, suffragists, Native American “code talkers” and others whose participation in the war to “make the world safe for democracy” has been largely forgotten. The Great War explores how a brilliant PR man bolstered support for the war in a country hesitant to put lives on the line for a foreign conflict; how President Woodrow Wilson steered the nation through years of neutrality, only to reluctantly lead America into the bloodiest conflict the world had ever seen, thereby transforming the United States into a dominant player on the international stage; and how the ardent patriotism and determination to support America’s crusade for liberty abroad led to one of the most oppressive crackdowns on civil liberties at home in U.S. history. It is a story of heroism and sacrifice that would ultimately claim 15 million lives and profoundly change the world forever.

The Great War can be streamed free online on the PBS web site, or viewed on Amazon Prime, iTunes, or Google Play.

Sled Dog Soldiers  In August 1915, two officers of the French Army embark on an incredible secret mission: to bring 450 sled dogs from Alaska and Canada to France. Will they succeed in carrying out their mission on time? The objective: to save the Eastern front from German invasion with the help of the sled dogs – the only way to penetrate the snow-filled Vosges and bring much-needed supplies and ammunition to starving and injured French soldiers. Captain Louis Moufflet and Lieutenant René Haas and legendary dogsled driver Scotty Allan have 120 days to cover 10,000 kilometers under enemy threat, from Alaska all the way to Quebec. Once their ship departs they must defy German submarines and face terrible storms to cross the Atlantic and reach France. As one Amazon reviewer wrote: “The logistics of moving this many high energy/dominant Canines in ANY era is hard to comprehend, but doing it in 1915? and in undeveloped Canada and Alaska!?”

Sled Dog Soldiers can be viewed on Amazon Prime, and other online video sources.

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

As our nation struggles with how to get the country back to normal after the Covid-19 challenge, looking back 100 years to the aftermath of World War I offers some possible lessons for our national endeavor. As our World War I Centennial partners at history.com have written: “Somehow, despite a global flu pandemic that killed 675,000 Americans in 1918 and 1919, and a depression that gutted the economy in 1920 and 1921, the United States not only recovered but entered into a decade of unprecedented growth and prosperity.”  Americans made and wore masks as the nation worked to overcame the effects of the virus, and in time was “able to exercise a wide and important influence in restoring the world to a normal and livable condition.” Though many obstacles had to be overcome, the nation was on course to recovery.

We will be encountering such obstacles alike in the 21st Century while overcoming the current challenges our nation faces, as “even the best battle plan doesn’t survive first contact with the enemy.” This can also be true of efforts to honor those who flew for America’s armed forces in WWI. A multi-year effort to restore to flying status the last remaining original, made-in-WWI American DH4 aircraft was very successful recently…up until it wasn’t. Dorian Walker, leader of the Friends of Vintage Flight Team and pilot of the “Liberty Plane,” took to the sky last week on a test flight, and thrilled his team with the sight of the DH4 aloft for the first time in 100 years, as the photos at top and at left attest. However, as Dorian tells us, something “happened to interfere with our flight plan” before the aircraft was back on the runway safely…a happenstance all-too-familiar to WWI aviators like Eddie Rickenbacker. The team is now determining the extent of damage and the costs to repair, similar to what the nation is going through now in the wake of the Covid-19 “crash” that it has endured. We won’t necessarily be successful with each step the first time we take it, but with good planning and hard work, we’ll get it done. As Eddie Rickenbacker said, “I can give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through – then follow through.“

The World War I Centennial Commission and The Doughboy Foundation team has been working hard to keep construction moving forward on the new National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC, while taking the required Covid-19 precautions, and so far there have been no delays, for which we are all very thankful. We’re keeping focused on our mission of honoring and remembering the 4.7 million Americans who served in our nation’s Armed Forces in World War I, confident that we have thought things through, and determined to follow through until the job is done.

The Liberty Plane team, thinking things through right now in the wake of the aircraft mishap, is also intent on following through with their commemorative mission. As Dorian told us, “I don’t regret for a moment climbing into that original 102 year-old cockpit, strapping myself in behind the totally rebuilt century-old 400 hp Liberty engine, and pushing the throttle forward, like the aviators of a century ago did to defend Liberty in the skies over Europe. Our team’s mission has been and continues to be to Honor and Remember those brave lads from long ago. And for that brief flight we feel we did exactly that!“

We will continue sending you these World War I-themed updates and activities over the coming weeks, hoping you will find them useful and enjoyable during these challenging times.

If you missed our “The Soldier’s and Artist’s Journey” webinar on May 1, you can click on the image at left to see and hear sculptor Sabin Howard describe the origin and making of the monumental bronze sculpture for the new National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC. Take an unprecedented look through the artist’s eye at the amazing work of art that will be honoring all the Americans who served in uniform in World War I.

If you are interested in how we plan to allow you to put the entire National World War I Memorial into your pocket, check out the the webinar about our exciting upcoming WWI Memorial Virtual Explorer smartphone App.

Didn’t see our “Finding Your WWI Ancestors” webinar on April 10? Click here to watch genealogist Debra Dudek provide a brief but deep introduction into how to research the records of your family members who served in uniform in World War I.

You can also watch a replay of our April 3 webinar about the status of the National World War I Memorial under construction in Washington, DC.  Click here to view the replay of this informative webinar.

When our Doughboys had a bit of precious time for rest and relaxation on the front lines in World War I, they would often turn to the camp library for a book to read that would help take their minds off the conflict for a short while. Courtland Jindra, Co-Director of the California WW1 Centennial Task Force, and long-time volunteer for the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission, has compiled his Top Ten Books about WWI list to share with us.  Here are the next three of Courtland’s Top Ten picks, with his comments about them. We hope these volumes can help take minds off of the current situation here in the US by looking back at the Great War and those great American veterans who served during the conflict.

First Over There: The Attack on Cantigny America’s First Battle of World War I by Matthew J. Davenport

“This book focuses on the organization, training, and first combat episodes (climaxing with the three days at Cantigny) of the 1st Division till early June 1918. It has an extraordinary level of detail, partly because the scope of Cantigny wasn’t as large as some of the later battles fought by the AEF. Davenport almost follows the action minute by minute as the men of the Big Red One takes and then holds the village against numerous counter attacks.” 

First Over There is available in hardcover, Audio book, and Kindle versions from Amazon, and from other online booksellers.

Passed by the Censor: The Experience of an American Newspaper Man in France by Wythe Williams

“Williams was bureau chief of the New York Times in Paris and the book is his experience covering the first year or so of the war there. The book is fascinating as the author describes living the events as they happened, from the week leading up to France entering the war, to covering the battle near the front line (including his arrest by Military Police), working for the American Red Cross for two months, and his views of General’s Joffre and Foch. The book loses a bit of near the end but admiration for it has only grown in the years since I first came across it.”

Passed by the Censor is available in hardcover, softcover, and Kindle versions from Amazon, or can be read free online here.

My Fellow Soldiers: General John Pershing and the Americans Who Helped Win the Great War by Andrew Carroll

“My Fellow Soldiers works as both a biography of General Pershing as well as a nice overview of the American experience in World War I. Cutting between the two story lines we see how the Iron General came to be chosen to lead the AEF, his struggles to put a modern Army on the field – as well as characters ranging from the Lafayette Escadrille, to the Choctaw Indians, to Sergeant Alvin York, The Lost Battalion and everything in between.”

My Fellow Soldiers is available in a variety of formats (including audio) from Amazon, and from other online booksellers.