The U.S. World War I Centennial Commission is truly saddened by the loss of former President George H. W. Bush (top left). In addition to his many well-known accolades and achievements, he also served as an Honorary Commission Chair for our organization. His ties to WWI were strong. President Bush’s father, Prescott Bush (center left), served as a U.S. Army field artillery officer during the war. The war broke out while Prescott Bush was a college student at Yale University. Upon graduation, he accepted an officer’s commission, and served as a field artillery captain with the Connecticut National Guard. President Bush’s grandfather, Samuel Bush (bottom left), also contributed to the war effort, as a senior government official working with wartime weapons contracts. In the spring of 1918, famous banker Bernard Baruch was asked to reorganize the War Industries Board as the U.S. prepared to enter World War I. He placed several prominent businessmen to key posts. Samuel Bush became chief of the Ordnance, Small Arms, and Ammunition Section, with national responsibility for government assistance to and relations with munitions companies.  Click here to read more about the Bush’s family’s World War I service to our nation. Also, click here to visit the Roll of Honor web site for more information on Prescott Bush.

We bring you this story as a repeat from March of this year. The U.S. Mint’s 2018 World War I Commemorative Silver Dollar is a collectible coin that is only available for another three weeks. The coin makes a wonderful holiday present — and it gives you the opportunity to directly participate in the creation of the new National World War I Memorial in Washington DC. A $10.00 surcharge from every coin sale will go to our Centennial Commission to help build the Memorial.  The sculptor of the WWI Centennial Coin, Don Everhart (left) is a legend in the world of numismatic design and sculpting. Don began his professional career at The Franklin Mint, where he worked as a sculptor from 1975 to 1980. From 1980 to 2004, he worked as a freelance artist, designing figurines, plates, coins, and medals for Walt Disney, Tiffany, the Royal Norwegian Mint and the British Royal Mint. He joined the U.S. Mint in 2004. There, he created designs for numerous coins and medals; his work resides in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian Institute, The British museum, and The American Numismatic Society. He retired from the U.S. Mint last year as the Lead Sculptor — and his last coin project was our WWI Centennial Silver Dollar. Our WWI coin was special to him, so we discussed it with him, in the context of his incredible career.

When 13-year-old Matthew Haske wrote a letter to President Donald Trump about his World War One commemorative trip to France, he never thought that he would be invited to attend the ceremony for the Armistice at Suresnes with his father. He “worked and saved all of his money for two years to make this trip to France” as Trump mentioned in his speech at the ceremony. U.S. World War I Centennial Commission Intern Wanxing Niu asked Matthew about his passion for World War I and his journey to France. Click here to read Matthew’s responses to her questions, including what he thought about meeting the President.

The PBS “To the Contrary” television series announced the winners of their 2018 About Women and Girls film festival, and among the awardees was The Hello Girls documentary. The “To the Contrary” film festival highlights the rights and struggles of women, girls and diverse communities. Winners in the film festival will have their films broadcast nationally on PBS in the coming year. The TV series “To the Contrary” airs on PBS stations nationwide, on Canadian television and Voice of America internationally. Click here to learn more about the award given to The Hello Girls documentary.

When World War I ended in triumph a century ago on Nov. 11, 1918, the nation’s second-largest wartime port staged a jubilant downtown parade — with 50 Langley Field planes flying overhead and long columns of uniformed men marching down Washington Avenue. But just hours after the cheering and flag-waving stopped, thousands of soldiers and sailors returned to ravage the commercial district of Newport News in a spectacular outbreak of vandalism, arson and looting spurred by pent-up anger over price gouging. So wild was the two-hour-long orgy of revenge that it took a clever decoying tactic and 300 military policemen with fixed bayonets to quell the marauders. Click here to read more about underlying the causes of the spectacular riots, which created “a combustible mix waiting for a spark. And that spark came with the end of the war.”

An American Legion post in southeastern Indiana is continuing the nationwide trend of posts highlighting the link between World War I and The American Legion’s formation, by renaming itself after a Hoosier hero of that war. In the rural part of the county, Maj. Samuel Woodfill was born in 1883. He enlisted in the Army in 1901, and served in the Philippine-American War and at the Mexican border before the start of World War I. On Oct. 12, 1918, in Cunel, France – during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive – Woodfill’s actions against a German machine-gun nest, which culminated in hand-to-hand fighting, resulted in his receipt of the Medal of Honor, making him the only Hoosier to earn one during the war. Click here to read more about Major Woodfill, and the American Legion post that now bears his proud name.

Holding Onto the Silver Greyhounds’ Tail

By Felicita Trueblood

In August 1918, Captain Wallace F. Hamilton was plucked from the Front to help lead the Silver Greyhounds, the first Overseas Courier Service, in Paris.

He made drawings and wrote a memoir of his experience, but these were stolen from the family’s archive in 1972.

In 2008, Hamilton’s daughter, Felicita Trueblood, went on an incredible quest to recover the lost items and then decided to publish the manuscript and the images.

This week at WWRite, read the post “Holding Onto the Silver Greyhounds’ Tail,” about Trueblood’s journey to reveal both the little-known story about the courier service and the story of her father’s WWI artistic life!

This week at the Behind Their Lines blog, read British medical worker Louis Golding writes of the sadness that characterized life after the Armistice in his poem “Broken Bodies.” 

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

Monday’s MIA this week is is Private Edward M. Beneker. The son of Henry and Catherine Beneker, Ed Beneker was a farmer born in South Gate, Indiana on September 20th, 1895. He entered the service on March 28th, 1918 and trained at Camp Taylor, Kentucky before being assigned to Company D, 115th Infantry, 29th Division at Camp McClellan, Alabama. With them he went overseas in June, 1918 and saw action that summer. Reported wounded on October 23rd, 1918, his status was later changed to killed in action, though his grave was never located. Nothing else is known of his case at this time.

Would you like to help solve Private Beneker’s case? Then why not give Give ‘Ten For Them’ to Doughboy MIA and help us make a full accounting of the 4,423 American service personnel still listed as missing in action from WW1. Make your tax deductible donation now, with our thanks.

This and many other Christmas gifts are available as Official Merchandise of the United States World War One Centennial.

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We bring you this story as a repeat from November of last year. The U.S. Mint’s 2018 World War I Commemorative Silver Dollar is a collectible coin that is only available for another four weeks. The coin makes a wonderful holiday present — and it gives you the opportunity to directly participate in the creation of the new National World War I Memorial in Washington DC. A $10.00 surcharge from every coin sale will go to our Centennial Commission to help build the Memorial. The designer of the Centennial Silver Dollar is Leroy Transfield (left). He is an experienced sculptor from New Zealand. His design was picked through an open international competition, hosted by the U.S. Mint, and this is his first coin for them. Click here to revisit our conversation with him about the coin, the inspiration, and his own personal ties to World War I.

America paused to remember World War I on the 100th anniversary of its close: At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ended. America’s entry the previous year set the course of American history and ignited passions of allegiance and heroism in the four million Americans who served and the 116, 525 men and women who sacrificed their lives. For a period of five days this month, November 8 through November 12, citizens could look into the lives and stories of diverse groups and individuals who served and supported the US military in WWI. Nine public events held in Pershing Park, Washington, D.C., site of the National World War I Memorial, saluted all military and veterans who served in WWI and the 100 years since.  Click here to read more about the A First Look special events that paid tribute to the significance of the anniversary of the Armistice.

For the Armistice Centennial, the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission hosted a number of events — concerts, religious services, education symposia, commemorations, gatherings — across the National Capital region, over the course of 8-12 November. The schedule represented an incredible partnership with such remarkable teammates as the Kennedy Center, the National Cathedral, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and many, many others. Called the ACE Events — for Armistice Centennial Events — they brought together long-term supporters of the Centennial activities over the years, with new members of our World War I community, many of whom have direct and indirect ties to people who served in the war. Click here to view galleries of photos that show the preparation and execution of some of the Commission’s own ACE events.

To commemorate the centennial of the end of World War I, curators of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy art collections collaborated in a joint exhibition, “A World at War: The Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy in World War I” at the National Museum of the Marine Corps (NMMC). This collection of artwork by 42 artists depicts the experiences of Marines, Sailors, and civilians during “the war to end all wars.” Click here to read more about this collection of WWI artwork that was created by service members, some of America’s leading illustrators, and even some unknown artists.

Writing in the Fall 2018 issue of Veterans Voices magazine, World War I Centennial Commission Commissioner Dr. Matthew Naylor, who is also President and CEO of the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, MO, encourages modern-day Veterans to follow the example of Americans who served in WWI: write about your experiences in the service of your nation. He notes that “sharing the veteran experience empowers the serviceperson and benefits their community” while “fostering a connection between the two while also deepening the connection between society and the military.” Click here to read Dr. Naylor’s entire thoughtful article connecting WWI Veterans with their contemporaries in the 21st Century.

The Michigan World War I Centennial Committee hosted a special commemorative ceremony to honor a heroic native-son, and to dedicate this year’s Veterans Day/Armistice Day to his memory. Our Centennial Commission was represented at the ceremony by Commissioner Debra Anderson. That native-son was Eugene I. VanAntwerp (left), former mayor of Detroit from 1948-1959, and National Commander-in-Chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars 1938-1939. Click here to read the entire story about VanAntwerp’s military and industrial contributions to America’s war efforts.

The Connecticut State Library has released the limited first edition republished “Connecticut Fights: The Story of the 102nd Regiment” by Capt. Daniel Strickland. This book is a remarkable account of the World War I experiences of this legendary infantry regiment. Christine Pittsley, Project Director for the Connecticut State Library’s “Remembering World War One: Sharing History/Preserving Memories” shared the announcement with us. Click here to read the entire article about how this historic volume was reassembled from 70-year old printed pages to tell again the stories of the CT heroes.

In November 2nd’s WW1 Centennial News Podcast, Episode 96, host Theo Mayer spoke with historian David Pietrusza about one of history’s deadliest pandemics, the Spanish Flu. This virus wreaked havoc on the war-weary peoples of the world, killing an estimated 50 to 100 million. Despite its massive impact, the history of the Spanish Flu is largely forgotten or ignored in the broader discussion of WW1. Mr. Pietrusza answers questions about the origins and consequences of the Spanish Flu, and why so little attention is paid to it. Click here to read a transcript of the entire absorbing interview,

The WW1 Centennial News Podcast is about WW1 THEN: 100 years ago this week, and it’s about WW1 NOW: News and updates about the centennial and the commemoration. 

Available on our web site, iTunes, Google Play, Podbean, TuneIn, Stitcher Radio on Demand.  Spotify  listen on Youtube. New – Comment and ask questions via twitter @TheWW1podcast

Episode #99
Thanksgiving Special

Host: Theo Mayer

What are we thankful for on this Thanksgiving? | @ 00:25

How to help build the National WWI Memorial in Washington DC | @ 02:45

Memorial Sculptor Sabin Howard on the sculpture design | @ 06:55

President Wilson’s 1918 Thanksgiving Proclamation | @ 10:50

Commission Executive Director Dan Dayton | @ 15:55

Commission Chairman Terry Hamby | @ 17:25

Accidental Tourism and War Memorials

By Eric Chandler

As a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, writer Eric Chandler discusses the voyage he’s taken (mostly on foot!) to grasp the lasting impact of WWI.

In this week’s WWrite post, “Accidental Tourism and War Memorials,” Chandler, author of Hugging This Rock, Outside Duluth, and Down In It, brings us along with him as he jogs through major American and Canadian cities searching for traces of WWI amidst other war memorials.

Read this compelling post about Chandler’s awakening to the presence of World War I history in our daily lives at WWrite this week!

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

Monday’s MIA this week is Private Melvin Tinsley. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, on 21 March, 1895, Melvin Darden Tinsley joined the United States Marine Corps on June 26th, 1917 and took his training at Parris Island, South Carolina. Assigned to the 48th Company/6th Marines/2nd Division, Private Tinsley arrived overseas on November 20th, 1917. He served in the Toul Sector, the Aisne Defensive, at Chateau Thierry, and finally during the Aisne-Marne Offensive, where he was severely wounded in action on July 19th, 1918 at Soissons. He died later that day of his wounds. Nothing else is known of his case at this time.

Would you like to help us solve Private Tinsley’s case? Can you spare ten dollars? Why not give ‘Ten For Them’ to Doughboy MIAand help us make a full accounting of the 4,423 American service personnel still listed as missing in action from WW1. Make your tax deductible donation now, with our thanks.

“Nothing Stops These Men” Key Tag

Still one of the favorite WWI Centennial Commemoration items, this handsome key tag is a great addition to your keys! Inspired by an original World War One poster, this key tag features the dramatic image of a bayonet advance on the enemy, with the United States flag in the upper corner.

A functional way to show your patriotism, this 1-1/4” long, custom key tag has a bright gold finish, with color-fill, and is offered exclusively through the World War One Centennial Commission.

This and many other items are available as Official Merchandise of the United States World War One Centennial.

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