April 2025

Published: 1 May 2025

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April 2025

Poppies on slope

The poppies are in bloom now at the National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC. Site Lead for Maintenance at the Memorial Kelly Hurtado gives a closeup of a blossom at lower right. The poppy’s origin as a symbol of remembrance is closely linked to the landscapes of World War I, where poppies grew abundantly on disturbed earth in the battlefields of Flanders, as memorialized in the poem “In Flanders Fields” John McCrae. However, poppies are known for their fickle nature when it comes to blooming. Their blooming depends on the weather and can be unpredictable, often teasing visitors with occasional patches but then hiding in the soil with stubbornness that leaves people wanting more. So don’t wait — get down to the National World War I Memorial in the next few weeks to see this year’s poppies before they disappear for another year.


Melissa Errico with SOAR logo

Tony Award-nominated actress, singer and writer Melissa Errico will perform a WWI-themed tribute concert in honor of her Aunt Rose

Melissa Errico Brings The Story Of A Rose: A Musical Reverie on The Great War to the Washington, D.C. Area May 7

On May 7, Tony Award-nominated Broadway actress, singer and writer and Manhattan native Melissa Errico will perform The Story of a Rose: A Musical Reverie on The Great War live at the Schlesinger Center in Alexandria, VA, to benefit the Doughboy Foundation. Errico has dazzled audiences with performances in DraculaLes MisérablesHigh Society, White Christmas and more, debuting new works at The Met Cloisters and Carnegie Hall in New York, sharing stages with Alec Baldwin, Jerry Stiller and many others. Thanks to the generosity of the Gary Sinise Foundation, 80% discounts for military, veterans, and First Responders tickets are available, as well as other discounts for students and senior citizens.

Melissa Errico chats with WBGO's Doug Doyle.

Errico recently joined WBGO’s Doug Doyle to talk about the special concert that’s a tribute to love and sacrifice and her special connection to her Aunt Rose, a Ziegfeld Follies star and Italian immigrant living through World War I. Watch the interview here, and learn how Errico hopes the WWI-era music will “connect us to the past” and the men and women who served their nation in The Great War.


Hello Girls Unit Plaque Tribute Dedication Ceremony May 25 At National Museum Of The U.S. Army, Ft. Belvoir, VA

National Museum of the U.S. Army

On May 25, 2025, at the National Museum of the United States Army in Fort Belvoir, VA, a new unit tribute plaque will be dedicated to the WWI U.S. Army Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit, known popularly as the “Hello Girls.” They were the first all-female unit in the US Army, and the first to directly contribute to combat operations in France and then post-war occupied Germany. A reception will begin at 1:30 in Veterans’ Hall, followed by a ceremony at 2 p.m., and an unveiling of the unit tribute along the Wall of Honor. WWI music will be performed by members of the Doughboy Foundation’s AEF Headquarters Band. Read more about the event, and RSVP to attend. People wishing to attend the event must RSVP by May 10, 2025Please note that the Museum has several policies and procedures to which all visitors must adhere.


‘Holy’ Work: Stars Of David Replace Crosses On Stones Of Two World War I Soldiers At Arlington National Cemetery

Star of Davind on headstone

Some 100 people braved 40-degree temperatures on a damp day at Arlington National Cemetery to watch, as speaker after speaker put it, Pfc. Adolph Hanf and Pvt. David Moser “come home.” Neither of the Jewish soldiers, who served in World War I and have been dead for more than 100 years, underwent a geographic relocation. But with the help of Operation Benjamin, a donor-supported nonprofit, Moser (1898-1919) and Hanf (1884-1918) received new gravestones with Stars of David rather than Latin crosses. Read the whole story, and learn how “thanks to the efforts of Operation Benjamin and their team, we can better appreciate the shared Jewish sacrifice in the cause of democracy and freedom.”


Centennial Event Honors Portland, OR Joan of Arc Statue & WWI Doughboys

Joan of Arc sculpture in Portland, OR

On Memorial Day, May 30, 1925, a large crowd gathered for the dedication of the Joan of Arc statue that graces Coe Circle in the Laurelhurst neighborhood of Portland, OR. It was erected to honor American infantrymen and the United States’ long-standing alliance with France. The story told back then was that along with the French forces, the WWI Doughboys viewed Joan of Arc as their patron saint and it is said they would sing  “Joan of Arc, They Are Calling You” as they would march into battle. This year on Friday, May 30, 2025 — exactly one hundred years later — a rededication celebration where  the community will gather once again to celebrate the statue’s centennial will take place. Learn more about the event that will “honor our French-American alliance, the Doughboys, Joan of Arc and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.”


Is There Any Danger Today From NJ WWI Munitions Plant Explosion In 1918?

Memorial for NJ munitions factory explosion in WWI

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has reached out to about 100 property owners to determine if further environmental cleanup is needed after a huge munitions plant explosion more than a century ago. The Oct. 4, 1918 explosion, just a month before the end of World War I at the Morgan Depot, an artillery shell loading plant, killed about 100 people and injured hundreds more, forcing the evacuation and reconstruction of Sayreville, South Amboy, and Laurence Harbor. A century later, the Corps of Engineers wants to make sure that the area is free of contamination and potentially dangerous material.


Purple Heart Presented To family Of California World War I Veteran

posthumously awarded WWI Purple Heart medal

Representative Vince Fong of California posthumously awarded a Purple Heart to the family of deceased service member Private First Class Andreas (Andrew) Cagoulides, U.S. Army. Cagoulides was born in 1892 and immigrated to the United States in 1913. He voluntarily joined the U.S. Army in 1918, where he served in the 315th Infantry with Company I during World War I. Read more about Cagoulides, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen, was injured during the line of duty, and was honorably discharged in 1919. An active member in the Veterans of Foreign Wars for over 50 years, he died in 1984.


Hello From A French Village That Recalls The U.S. As Staunch Ally In World War I

American Monument in Cantigny, France

More than a century after the fighting stopped, the U.S. Army’s First Division has not fully faded from memory in Cantigny, the tiny hilltop village in northern France that it helped to save in World War I. Now a local history teacher has hatched a plan to try to keep the communal memory alive. He has led his high school students through a study of the battle, and in led a group of them to Washington, D.C., to honor its significance. Learn how teacher Louis Teyssedou to and his students came to Washington with an old U.S. battle flag and a plan to rekindle memories of the American soldiers who rescued their region during World War I.


Daily Taps at the National WWI Memorial

Honoring  SGT Robert Emmett Carey

On April 9, 2025, Daily Taps at the National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC was sounded in honor of SGT Robert Emmett Carey, Field Remount Squadron 325, 32nd Division, World War I.

SGT Carey served in France Sept 1918 – July 1919. He was wounded Oct 14, 1918 in Verdun. He was a member of the Berlin, WI VFW & American Legion posts. This DAILY TAPS in his honor was sponsored by SGT Carey’s son, Rear Admiral James J. Carey, USN (Retired), long-time friend, benefactor, and former Board Member of the Doughboy Foundation.

Robert Emmet Carey

The Daily Taps program of the Doughboy Foundation provides a unique opportunity to dedicate a livestreamed sounding of Taps in honor of a special person of your choice while supporting the important work of the Doughboy Foundation. Choose a day, or even establish this honor in perpetuityClick here for more information on how to honor a loved veteran with the sounding of Taps.


‘A Love Letter to Chaplains’: Exhibit honors contributions of military chaplains in World War I

Sacred Service exhibit logo

Bombs, death, trench warfare — all of the experiences as an Italian military chaplain would forever shape Father Angelo Roncalli’s future life and ministry as a priest, bishop and eventually as Pope John XXIII. That’s just one of the many facts that visitors to the National World War I museum in Kansas City, Missouri can learn at the Sacred Service exhibit. Opening in May 2024, the Sacred Service exhibit commemorates and educates visitors on the critical service that chaplains played during the First World War. Find out more about this upcoming new exhibit, which “is an effort to tell those stories through the lens and experiences of military chaplains, through the experiences of these religious leaders who often were just as unprepared for the war as of the men whom they were ministering to.”


How Black Newspapers Became A Threat To The U.S. Government During WWI

Black newspapers in WWI

During WWI, Black newspapers weren’t just sources of news—they were lifelines for Black communities. At a time when mainstream white newspapers ignored or distorted Black experiences, Black-owned publications told the truth, exposing racial injustice, challenging the government’s treatment of Black soldiers, and giving Black Americans a voice in a country that often tried to silence them. But that voice came at a cost. The U.S. government saw Black newspapers as dangerous. The federal government viewed their reporting as “disloyal” and a threat to the war effort. Learn how Black journalists who dared to expose discrimination in the military and the unfair treatment of Black draftees found themselves under surveillance, threatened, and even prosecuted.


WWI Illustrators Of America:
How Harry Townsend & F.C. Yohn
Helped Win The War

5th Marines on the Last Night of the War snip

Join nationally renowned author, James Thompson, at the Norwalk Historical Society’s Mill Hill Historic Park on Tuesday, June 27, 2017 at 7:00pm for an introspective look at World War I artists, most specifically Norwalk artists, Harry Townsend and F.C. Yohn. WWI Illustrators of America: How Harry Townsend and F.C. Yohn Helped Win the War is part of the Norwalk Historical Society’s World War I Centennial Lecture Series.  World War I posters on loan from the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, CT and Townsend and Yohn’s art work from the City of Norwalk Collection will be on display. Find out more about this event, where Thompson will explain how Uncle Sam used the art of men like Harry Townsend and F. C. Yohn to win the war, and how the images they created reshaped the way Americans perceived themselves. 


WWI Museum Resurrects Great War Participants In New High-Tech Exhibit

New exhibit at National WWI Museum and Memorial

The National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, is getting a facelift. Opening over Memorial Day weekend, the museum’s latest exhibit, “Encounters,” will take viewers through the lives of 16 individuals that include: Allied and Central Power combat soldiers; British colonial Indian soldiers; women working in munitions factories; and dissenters arrested and tried for anti-war stances. Find out how “Encounters” will include state-of-the-art media displays that will feature 1.25 mm Pixel Pitch LED Display technology from Nanolumens — first installation of its kind in a museum in the U.S.


The Doughboy In The Garage Sale:
How Sacred Artifacts End Up
On Folding Tables

WWI artifact

Imagine a folding table sitting under a pop-up canopy in a driveway somewhere in Indiana. On it, between a box of kitchen tools and a plastic snowman, lies a bayonet. Rusted a bit. Wrapped in a yellowing cloth that was once white. It’s real, though. A WWI artifact. And someone, maybe even the person selling it, doesn’t know where it came from – only that it’s been in the attic, or basement or a box marked “Dad’s stuff.” The question isn’t just how it got there. It’s why and exactly how sacred WWI artifacts end up on folding tables at all. That question doesn’t have a single answer. Read more, and learn how “the path from sacred to surplus usually involves misplacement, misremembering, and the plain fact that people die.”


After Nearly 100 Years, This World War I Soldier Received His Medal Of Honor

William Shemin

War brings out the best and worst in its participants. One seldom knows what qualities one brings onto the battlefield until a situation arises when that service person has to make a fateful choice. In the case of William Shemin, World War I presented more than one call beyond duty. Though recommended by members of his division for the Medal of Honor for his performance during the Second Battle of the Marne, Shemin was denied the MOH because he was Jewish. Learn how Shemin, awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1919, finally received the Medal of Honor almost 100 years after his heroic actions, due to his  supporters who kept up the appeal for an upgrade after his death in 1973. 


Reports From The World War I Battlefields In France – A Swedish Journalist Met The Swedish Soldiers

Gunnar Cedershiöld

Writing for the Swedes on The Western Front website, Jocke Hallberg explorers the story of a Swedish journalist who spent a lot of time in France during the First World War. Gunnar Cedershiöld met a lot of soldiers with Swedish background, or connection to Sweden, on the battlefields of France, including Swedes serving in the American Expeditionary Forces, as well as the French Foreign Legion. Read more about Cedershiöld’s many interviews, including those with Swedes in the AEF who “signed up the first day possible, many of them were very young, but also farmers who left their farms to do what they could do for their new country.”


Location Of WWI-era German U-boat
At The Bottom Of Lake Michigan
Is A Closely Guarded Secret

UC 97 conning tower

Resting beneath the surface of Lake Michigan is a 185-foot German U-boat—an unexpected find, especially since no German submarines ever operated in the Great Lakes during either World War. So how did a U-boat end up thousands of miles from the battlefields of Europe? The journey of this submarine from the depths of the Atlantic to the heart of America is one of the most fascinating—and unlikely—stories from the aftermath of World War I. Find out how “some people saw an opportunity. The war had left the U.S. with a big national debt, and one creative proposal suggested using the captured submarines to raise money.”


Sculptor Sabin Howard Continues To Draw Praise For His “A Soldier’s Journey” Work At The National WWI Memorial

WWI sculpture snip

Sculptor Sabin Howard’s amazing A Soldier’s Journey at the national World War I Memorial continues to draw attention to him and his work. On the Daily Signal website, Howard shared with writer Rob Bluey his remarkable journey from college dropout to national monument maker, in an interview titled Sculptor Sabin Howard Battles Modernists to Create Classical WWI Memorial.  Speaking for himself on the Modern Age website. Howard takes a hard look at Why America Builds Monuments, And on an episode of the PoliticIt Podcast, sculptor Sabin Howard shares “his journey from a young artist in New York to becoming a modern-day Michelangelo, capturing the spirit of humanity through monumental art” in The Renaissance of American Art: Sabin Howard and the Grand Liberty Arch, A Monument for Our Time.


National Lingerie Day: How World War I Revolutionized Women’s Underwear And Popularized The Modern Bra

Evening STandard photo snip

April 25 is National Lingerie Day in the United States – but it could just as easily be celebrated on November 3. That’s the date on which Mary Phelps Jacob, an American socialite credited with popularizing the modern bra, received a U.S. patent for her ‘backless brassiere’ in 1914. Although Jacob herself reaped limited financial profit from her creation, the onset of World War I that same year ultimately provided the springboard for the bra’s widespread adoption. Learn why it is Jacob’s invention that is deemed chiefly responsible for launching a bra industry that was valued at some $60 billion worldwide in 2024.


World War I News Digest April 2025

Harlem Hellfighters snip

World War I was The War that Changed the World, and its impact on the United States continues to be felt over 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.

April 8, 1918: Harlem Hellfighters join French Army in attack

Heroic Facts About Alvin York, America’s WWI Hero

WWI U.S. Army Units: Formation, Uniforms, & Enduring Legacy

US & Mexico WWI Battle Brought Permanent Fence to Border

Military Contributions of Honduras in World War I

After robust debate, U.S. entered World War I

National World War I Museum project halted due to federal cuts

This is America and the untold story of isolationism

Exhibit at Library memorializes local African American WWI vets

America was at worst in WWI. Here’s how to prevent a repeat.


Doughboy MIA for April 2025

Lieutenant Walter Craig

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

Our Doughboy MIA this month is Lieutenant Walter Craig, born on January 5, 1892, in Climax, Pennsylvania. He graduated from New Bethlehem High School in 1913, where he was an active member of the school basketball team. Walter came from a family with a long tradition of military service dating back to the Revolutionary War. His grandfather died as a Prisoner of War at Andersonville Prison during the Civil War. When the U.S. entered the war on April 6th, 1917, Walter was a sophomore at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. Eager for active duty, he enlisted in the Army and attended officer training at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, in December 1917. In April 1918, he was assigned to Company K, 59th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division as a Second Lieutenant. That same month, Walter married Phyllis Thompson of Alexandria Bay, New York. He sailed for France the following month. On July 19, 1918, Lieutenant Craig was wounded during the Aisne-Marne Offensive.

Lieutenant Craig’s entire story.

Would you like to be involved with solving the case of Lieutenant Walter Craig, and all the other Americans still in MIA status from World War I? You can! Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to our non-profit organization today, and help us bring them home! Help us do the best job possible and give today, with our thanks.  Remember: A man is only missing if he is forgotten.


Merchandise from the Official
Doughboy Foundation WWI Store

Summer is on the horizon! Now is the time to grab any of these big books to help tell the important story of the United States during and after World War I, and give you a great read on long airplane flights, or while soaking up sun on the beach. (They have lots of great pictures as well…)

100 Cities/100 Memorials Book front cover

100 Cities 100 Memorials is the first book to salute America’s official centennial World War One memorials. As selected by the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, Chicago, the Congress-appointed World War I Centennial Commission, these 100 diverse monuments represent equally varied and moving stories of dedication, sacrifice, and heroism. With more than 230 archival images, vintage posters, and new photographs, this richly illustrated volume journeys from Hawaii to Maine, Idaho to Florida, and Arizona to Illinois to celebrate tributes formed of metal, stone, and memory. The compelling text provides a deeper understanding of each memorial and salutes the many organizations today that bridge past and present to maintain and honor these expressions of the nation’s heritage. “100 Cities 100 Memorials” is much more than a picture book. Through the powerful and personal narratives it tells, this volume stands as an eloquent testament to those who answered the call of duty and shaped one of the most consequential eras in American history. Purchase a copy of this amazing book now.

Lest We Forget Book Cover

Lest We Forget: The Great War World War I Prints from the Pritzker Military Museum & Library. One of the nation’s premier military history institutions pays tribute to the Americans who served and the allies they fought beside to defeat a resourceful enemy with a lavishly illustrated book.  It is an official product of the United States World War One Centennial Commission and is a tribute to those who served in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and what would become the Air Force. It serves as a lasting reminder that our world ignores the history of World War I (and the ensuing WWII) at its peril―lest we forget.

Honoring the Doughboys book

Honoring the Doughboys: Following My Grandfather’s World War I Diary is a stunning presentation of contemporary photographs taken by the author that are paired with diary entries written by his grandfather, George A. Carlson, who was a soldier in the U.S. Army during World War I. Jeff Lowdermilk followed his grandfather’s path through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany and returned with these meticulously crafted photographs and his own engaging stories that bring the diary to life for contemporary readers. Lowdermilk’s passion for World War I and military history began as a young boy when he listened to his grandfather tell his stories about serving as an infantryman– a “Doughboy”–in Europe during the Great War.

In The Centennial Footsteps vertical gang

In the Centennial Footsteps of the Great War

This notable 2-volume work has been included in the Doughboy Shop for awareness. $2 from every copy sold in the United States will go to the Doughboy Foundation. Throughout history, all wars have been given names. But not the one to which Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy’s two-volume book is dedicated. It was simply called the Great War. The events of 1914–1918, also referred to as the First World War or World War One, and the sacrifices made by our forebears a century ago should always be remembered because peace can never be taken for granted. Understanding the reasons, circumstances, and the consequences of the First World War will help us to prevent the Third World War.

Proceeds from the sale of these items will help us keep watch on the National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC.

This and many other items are available as Official Merchandise of the Doughboy Foundation.



A Story of Service from the Stories of Service section of doughboy.org

Harold Edward Carlson

Submitted by: Robert E. Carlson {grandson}

Harold Carlson was born Harald Eugen Karlsson on November 3, 1892, in Norrköping, Östergötland, Sweden. He was orphaned in 1900 when his father died. He immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, to live with his mother’s sister, Mathilde, and his uncle Jens (John) Jensen. It was a crowded house with his sister, another aunt, three cousins, and a border. Harold drove a horse-drawn wagon for a warehouse business as a young man. When the war broke out, he was inducted as a teamster. Harold kept a notebook that listed his duty stations from his induction to his discharge. This is his entry: “May 28, 1918 left home for Camp Upton. Left Upton June 13, 1918 for Camp Johnston, Fla. Arrived the 16th. Left Johnston Aug. 2. To Camp Hill 4. From Hill to France 14. Arrived in Brest 26. Sept. 4 to Sougy 8th (arrived). From Sougy June 2, 1919. From Lemunox 3, 1919. St. Gearvas 12th.”

My grandfather served in the 318th Field Remount Squadron for his time in the war. The 318th was in the Service of Supply Intermediate area of the A.E.F. Although he was not at the front, according to my grandmother, he was at one point gassed and he suffered from shell shock on his return. Harold returned home with the 318th on the battleship USS Virginia. After arriving in Boston, my grandfather and the other members of the 318th Field Remount Squadron were transported to Camp Devins, Massachusetts, while the USS Virginia was berthed at the navy yards dry-dock for decommissioning. Among my grandfather’s possessions is the program for the farewell dinner hosted by the Virginia’s officers and crew. Several years later, Harold developed tuberculosis from his weakened lungs. He died in the Sunmount Federal Hospital in Altmont, New York on March 19, 1931.

Submit your family’s Story of Service here.


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