It's been an an incredibly dynamic year for the Doughboys. In late August, sculptor Sabin Howard moves his studio from the Bronx to Englewood, NJ to accommodate the "full size" sculpting of the 58 foot long, 38 character bronze relief sculpture called "A Soldier's Journey". The final Memorial design is approved, and first phase construction has begun. It is your continued support that is making all this possible. So we ask you to please include the new World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C. in your tax-deductible year-end giving. Click here to donate today!

The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, signed on December 20, requires the service secretaries to re-examine the records of African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, Jewish American, and Native American veterans of World War I who earned medals for valor, and decide whether any of them should be upgraded to the nation’s highest military honor. The Valor Medals Review Task Force, a joint project by the World War I Centennial Commission and the George S. Robb Centre for the Study of the Great War at Park University in Parkville, Mo., has identified World War I service records that the service secretaries can use to determine whether they should be reviewed further to be considered for the Medal Of Honor. Click here to read more about this long-sought opportunity to be sure no Doughboy deserving the nation's highest honor is left overlooked.

Spokane, WA Daughters of the American Revolution chapter member Rae Anna Victor was chatting with a local historian about the Argonne Bridge in the Millwood section, noting "how sad it was that the plaques had been taken off the Argonne Bridge because now hardly anyone knew the origins of the name. Both of us agreed that it needed to be rectified." From this seed sprouted an amazing grass roots project that culminated in a new memorial dedicated on November 11, 2019. Click here to read more about this project "joining the past to the present, and moving on into the future" that has many lessons for other groups looking to rescue and restore local World War I memorials across the nation.

Pennsylvania historian Joseph Felice was driving along Main Street in Coatesville, PA earlier this year when he noticed banners lining the sidewalks, placed there by Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 287 in honor of Coatesville area men and women who served their country past and present. One banner in particular grabbed his attention: it read “Wellington G. Sahler, Killed in Action, 1918, Died in the Battle of Argonne Forrest.” Click here to read how Felice's piqued interest resulted in a new understanding and appreciation of Sahlar, his friend Lance Eck, and the story of how and why VFW Post 287 got its name after World War I.

American Legion Post 29 in Greenwood, Mississippi bears the name of three World War I veterans who all sacrificed their lives during the Great War. The three officers (one an aviator, two infantrymen) were killed in action in 1918 during the final month of combat in World War I, but thanks to the support of Greenwood’s American Legion Post 29, the stories of these three heroes will live on in perpetuity. Click here to read more about these three heroes: Lt. Samuel R. Keesler, Jr., Cpt. Henry W. Hamrick, and Lt. Gordon Gillespie.

For Robert Eugene Johnson, the author of Austin in the Great War, it started out as a beguilingly simple question about his father, Austin Johnson: "My family always longed to know what happened to Austin during the Great War. When I retired I resolved to find out." That resolution led him on a remarkable journey that started with "only the barest facts about my father’s time “over there” and ended up with a book that shed light on both his father's experience and the history of a half-forgotten component of the American Expeditionary Forces. Click here to read the whole story about the many "goosebumps" encountered in the journey to discover and tell the whole story about Austin in the Great War.

The small French village of Saint-Parize-le-Châtel (just south of the city of Nevers—former site of the Service of Supplies of the American Expeditionary Forces in WWI) still commemorates the American presence in their area where the huge Mars-sur-Allier Hospital Camp was located during 1917-1919. Click here to read a message from mayor, the head of the local historical society, and the designer of the historic route around the former U.S. Hospital, which tells of how citizens from the village continue to honor the American men and women who were killed during the First World War.

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

This month Doughboy MIA would like to thank everyone for their contributions throughout 2019. It is through your generous donations that we are able to continue our work, and you will begin seeing more results of this work as 2020 progresses. We have several cases in the works and have made conclusions in several more more, and these will all be featured in coming editions of Doughboy MIA of the Month. 

We took on a big job when we launched Doughboy MIA several years ago, and it has been a hard pull getting started, but we have made progress and that was only possible via YOUR donations and the hard work of our volunteer team. 

Thanks! And blessings to you and yours this holiday season. 2020 promises to be a big year for us, and that means for you, too. Keep those donations coming and know we are ever grateful. The size doesn't matter - the feeling behind it does. Together we will continue to try and make a full accounting of our missing Doughboys until a determination has been made for them all and any that might still be found are.

A man is only missing if he is forgotten - and together we'll keep them from being forgotten.

A Happy New Year to you all.

Sincerely,

Rob Laplander and the whole Doughboy MIA team.

Would YOU like to be a part of our mission of discovering what happened to our missing Doughboys from WW1? Of course you would, and you CAN! Simply make a donation to the cause and know you played a part in making as full an accounting as possible of these men. Large or small doesn’t matter – that you cared enough to help does. Visit www.ww1cc.org/mia to make your tax deductible donation to our non-profit project today, and remember:

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

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