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April 2022
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WWI Memorial “Virtual Explorer” App Nominated for Two Webby Awards!
The WWI Memorial "Virtual Explorer" App has been selected from among over 14,300 entries as a finalist in not one but two categories of the 2022 Webby Awards. Presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, the Webby Awards are the "Internet's highest honor." Each category will give one award selected by the Academy and another that is known as a People's Voice award, selected by vote of the general public. This means that YOU can help the WWI Memorial "Virtual Explorer" App win one or both of these awards! Click here to read the whole exciting story, and find out how you and everyone you know can vote to bring these two prestigious awards to the "Virtual Explorer" App, and thereby put a great national spotlight on the National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC.
World War I Centennial Commission wins 2021 DowntownDC Momentum Award for National World War I Memorial
The DowntownDC Business Improvement District hosted its 2021 Momentum Awards on Thursday, March 24, 2022, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, DC. At the ceremony, the World War One Centennial Commission received the Downtown Detail Award for the opening of the new National World War I Memorial at the former Pershing Park, on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, "which serves as a beautiful dedication to the heroism and sacrifice of Americans." Click here to read more, and see video that was played for attendees at the award ceremony last month.
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The Daily Taps program at the National World War I Memorial, in Washington, DC was launched November 11, 2021 by the Doughboy Foundation as part of its ongoing commitment to Honor All Those Who Served in WWI. To ensure this commitment would be steadfast, Jari Villanueva, lifelong bugler, considered to be the country’s foremost expert on military bugle calls, and Director of Taps for Veterans, was chosen to lead this effort. Jari sounded the first Daily Taps at the WWI Memorial, DC, and continues to play, as well as organize many other dedicated buglers who have stepped forward to honor all our Veterans and active-duty military, rain or shine. Click here to learn more about Jari and the Daily Taps program at the National World War I Memorial.
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When Justus Doenecke retired in 2005 at age 67 from the faculty of New College of Florida, the state’s honors college, where he had taught for 36 years, he was "hoping for a large project to keep me occupied during my new 'permanent leave.'” He realized that he had "collected a number of contemporary books" on World War I, so he decided to read them. One thing led to another, and 17 years later, his retirement "hobby" has turned into two monumental books on WWI. The latest book, More Precious Than Peace: A New History of America in World War I was published this spring by the University of Notre Dame Press. Click here to read more, and find out how some light reading about WWI evolved into two important contributions to the canon of writings about the "diplomatic, military, and ideological aspects of U.S. involvement as a full-scale participant in World War I."
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On May 20, 2022, and in celebration of EMS week, Washington DC Fire & EMS Deputy Chief Michael Knight and Boston researcher George Whitehair will lead the recognition for all EMS workers and in particular, a World War I veteran, doctor, and surgeon, who served in France with the 92nd Division (Buffalo soldiers). He then returned to start an ambulance corp and a hospital, both of which continue to serve their communities almost 100 years later. His name is Dr. Frank Erdman Boston, and he will be honored at the World War I Memorial along with all EMS workers during EMS week. Click here to read more about Dr. Frank Boston and EMS Week 2022.
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During Women’s History Month, inspirational women such as Harriet Tubman or Susan B. Anthony are often remembered, but it is also important to recognize women closer to home. During World War I, women from Rock Island and Moline, Illinois, Davenport, Iowa, and the surrounding areas, were hired in large numbers at Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois for the first time, in order to support the war efforts. Click here to read more, and learn how women at RIA emerged from strictly clerical jobs, and put their lives on the line by working one of the most dangerous tasks at the arsenal, filling 155mm shells and setting fuses.
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Together in life and death: The Cromwell sisters of World War I
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World War I was The War that Changed the World, and its impact on the United States continues to be felt a century later, as people across the nation learn more about and remember those who served in the Great War. Here's a collection of news items from the last month related to World War I and America. |
90-year-old Gateway pillars in Lafayette deserve to be saved
Fiery crash topples over World War I memorial in Prospect Park
How war became a crime after WWI
Naturalized World War I Soldier Frank Capra
The first canned dog food in US made from excess WWI horses
How Basic Healthcare Became Big Business in America after WWI
WWI veteran considered for Medal of Honor recognized in Texas
What happened when the 1918 flu pandemic met World War I
VA Medical Center to celebrate 100-year anniversary next year
Again, Russia at center of American-Backed War for Democracy
WWI in the Alps: An American Journalist on the Italian front lines
Des Moines museums explore Black soldiers' sacrifice in WWI
What are the best movies about WWI? May I have the envelope, please!
Maybe it had to do with the hand-to-hand combat onstage at this year's Academy Awards, but for some reason, two major cinemaphilia web sites (now settle down, that means "a passionate interest in films, film theory, and film criticism") took it upon themselves to issue their own lists of "the best World War I movies of all time." You'd think these two lists would have a lot in common, but remember, we're talking about cinemaphiles here: the two lists are actually quite different, both in their evaluation approaches, and the specific films selected for the honors. The Stacker web site posted its "Best World War I movies of all time" list on March 30, after consulting "the top-rated war films on IMDb and ranked the top 25 about WWI."
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However, five days earlier on March 25, the slashfilm.com web site was out with its own "The 14 Best World War I Movies Ever Made" list. Intriguingly, the two lists are quite different (quite apart from having a different number of films), and not all of the films on the shorter list are included on the longer list. (Bonus question: what now-famous actor appears in one film that is on both lists, and another film that is only on one list?) So if you are looking for an excuse to binge watch a bunch of WWI movies, check out these two lists, and maybe come up with your own list of "the best World War I movies of all time."
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But say you're a bibliophile rather than a cinemaphile—we still got you covered. Writing on the intercollegiate Studies Institute web site, David Hein is pleased to present his great big list of The Great Books of the Great War for your reading pleasure. And since we don't have another contemporaneous list of WWI books to which to compare and contrast his, perhaps you can come up with your own!
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A man is only missing if he is forgotten.
Our Doughboy MIA this month is Eugene Sharp. Eugene was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on May 31st, 1896. He was the youngest of the 6 children that Sterling and Delphia Sharpe would have, farmers by trade.
Tall and stout, Sharpe had already done a year and half in the US Army before he enlisted in the Marine Corps on 13 February 1918. Upon arrival overseas he served as a Private in the 17th Company, 5th Regiment of Marines and was killed in action on 3 August 1918. His body was never recovered or identified and he is memorialized on the Tablets to the Missing in the chapel at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery at Belleau Wood, France.
What makes PVT Sharpe’s case so special to us at Doughboy MIA is that we found a long forgotten ‘movement card’ for a set of remains received at the cemetery on 11 December 1922. These were deemed unidentifiable and so interred permanently there on 18 January 1923. This card indicates the remains were those of a Marine that carried the name ‘Eugene’. In looking on our comprehensive list of MIA’s, we find that there is but one Marine with that first name who is still missing in action from WW1. The likelihood of the man described on the card being Eugene Sharpe are very good then – however, in order to investigate further there is a batch of long missing paperwork we need to find that we have been searching for a very long time. Once we find that paperwork, we will be able to either raise the case for the man on the card being our man or else dismiss it all together. In fact, Sharpe’s would be the fifth case we could do this on – WHEN we locate this paperwork!
Now that the National Archive system is beginning to open up again, Doughboy MIA can get back in there and resume doing what we do best there: root out the clues that help us locate these men for recovery and/or tell their stories. FOR THAT WE NEED YOUR HELP. Every trip to the archives or to the battlefields costs us money, and we survive solely on donations – donations that help us bring closure to these long-forgotten cases. Our recent trip to the battlefields of France last November has put us tantalizingly close to possibly recovering at least two sets of remains, and we’ve got a follow-up trip in the works – a trip that may prove very exciting and a real breakthrough for us after many years of dedicated work!
BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! Won’t you consider giving to Doughboy MIA? We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and your donation is tax deductible. Every dollar is used for our mission – a mission we believe is worthy of our best efforts. Here is YOUR chance to be part of this great endeavor. Please give today, and don’t be afraid to give generously! Visit us at www.ww1cc.org/mia and donate today with our everlasting thanks. Also visit us at www.doughboymia.org, or on Facebook at Doughboy MIA. Want to know more? Drop us a line – we’ll fill you in! But above all GIVE PLEASE: www.ww1cc.org/mia
A man is only missing if he is forgotten.
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Merchandise from the Official Doughboy Foundation WWI Store
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Submitted by: Jim Allison {grandson}
My Grandfather, John Henry Allison had moved from Adair County Kentucky to Pontiac, IL and was a farm hand for his future father-in-law John B. Scott in 1916. At the beginning of his courtship with Louise Scott, what is now known as World War 1 disrupts the plans of many a young man including Grandpa who was inducted in Pontiac, IL September 19, 1917 and sent to Camp Dodge, Iowa. From there he went to Camp Pike Arkansas. Then he sailed from Hoboken, New Jersey on June 19, 1918 on the ship “Delta” arriving in Liverpool, England on July 15, 1918, and on to Le Harve, France on July 20, 1918.
Grandpa was in the following engagements: Chateau Thierry July 20-August 5. 1918; St. Mihiel Sept. 14-20, 1918; Verdun Sept. 21-28, 1918. He was wounded in the left arm at Chateau Thierry and in his right foot at Verdun. He was in overseas hospitals at Tauris and Vichy France. He sailed back from Brest, France on September 29, 1918 and arrived at Hoboken, New Jersey Christmas Day 1918. He was discharged January 19, 1919.
In her high school days my sister Janet interviewed grandpa concerning his World War days. When grandpa told her about diving into a fox hole and having a bullet hit his foot, she asked him why he dove in head first? Grandpa said something to the effect with a touch of humor, “Would you rather I had got shot in the head?” Janet could probably fine tune this part of my memory a bit!
Here are a few memories grandpa shared about his war experiences. While on leave, he and a small group of soldiers were in town somewhere in France. They were trying to find some thing and one of the fellow soldiers convinced grandpa to ask a lady how to find it. They told grandpa how to say it in French. He did so and was promptly slapped in the face. They “got” grandpa on that one!
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