The National Cemetery Administration, Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery, and The Hello Girls Military Honors and Rembrance Project invite Veterans, active-duty service members, families, and the public to an event celebrating the military service of WWI Signal Corps Telephone Operator Irma Rameline Armanet, on Saturday, February 7, 2026, at 1 p.m. at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery, 1500 Mission Rd, Colma, CA 94014. This event will commemorate the WWI military service of Armanet, who was born in France on January 4, 1892 and died in San Francisco on February 23, 1975. For reasons unknown she was buried in an unmarked grave for over 50 years until advocates applied for a Department of Veterans Affairs flat bronze marker. The marker was approved and installed in October 2025. Read more about the ceremony, and the ongoing efforts of the Hello Girls Military Honors and Remembrance Project to ensure that all the Hello Girls have a grave marker noting their military service in World War I.

The Doughboy Foundation performing arts program took the next steps toward a national tour of The Story of a Rose; A Musical Reverie on the Great War with two presentations of the show starring Melissa Errico to participants during the annual Association of Performing Arts  Professionals event at New World Stages in New York City. The five hundred seat theatre was filled twice with representatives of theatres seeking programming for the months ahead, donors, and an ever increasing cadre of Doughboy Foundation supporters in greater New York. Learn more about The Story of A Rose, and how the Doughboy Foundation aspires for "Americans all across our great nation to have the opportunity to learn about what it meant to live in the war years through the brilliance of this great work of art created by Melissa Errico".

Arlington National Cemetery Senior Historian Dr. Allison S. Finkelstein will be leading a public webinar for the Army Nurse Corps Association (ANCA). This free webinar on Saturday, Jan. 31, 4 p.m. ET (via Zoom) is being hosted by the ANCA and is open to any member of the public. In honor of the 125^th anniversary of the Army Nurse Corps, the webinar will look at the story of Jane Delano, influential superintendent of the Corps during its formative years. Delano also devoted herself to the American Red Cross, and her leadership proved pivotal during World War I. Her death on duty in France in 1919 devastated the American nursing community, which commemorated her in multiple ways at ANC and beyond. Find out more about and register to attend this webinar exploring Delano's service and legacy, and Arlington National Cemetery's role as a sacred site for the military nursing community.

The Ross Valley Players theatre in California production of The Hello Girls Musical runs from January 30th through March 1st. The show is directed by Maeve Smith, who previously directed the play in Sonoma, CA. Smith was interviewed recently by the NBC Bay Area TV group. Watch the eniire video in which Smith talks about how "joyful and wonderful" it is to be directing the show again, but also how ironic, as she soon discovered a familiar injustice of a female WWI veteran resting in an unmarked grave.

Mission BBQ continues its efforts to honor veterans, and in this case, a World War I Army surgeon whose life shows that service does not end when the uniform comes off. In honor of a remarkable veteran, Mission BBQ's King of Prussia, Pennsylvania's location honored Dr. Frank Erdman Boston, recognizing his extraordinary legacy of military service, medical leadership, and lifelong commitment to community care. The tribute reflects Mission BBQ's national mission to honor veterans and first responders and places Dr. Boston's story before the public in a setting dedicated to service and sacrifice. Read more, and learn how "Mission BBQ is dedicated to honoring veterans, active duty military, and first responders, and Dr. Boston's story shows how service can continue long after the uniform comes off."

Catherine Bourgin is the granddaughter of WWI Hello Girl Marie Edmée LeRoux, and became very involved in the Hello Girls Congressional Gold Medal campaign in 2023 and 2024. In 2025, she carried on her family's volunteering tradition by supporting the Doughboy Foundation's annual Wreaths Across America campaign through organizing a Member Campaign at Ft. Lincoln Cemetery in Maryland. Find out more about how Wreaths Acoss America honors veterans, and what discoveries Catherine made in putting together this initial Member campaign, supporting the Hello Girls Military Honors and Remembrance Project.

Eugene "Reynold" Thomas was born in 1898, in Pennsylvania, to George and Evelyn Thomas. In 1917, he would enlist in the war as a Marine, and see action. After the Armistice was signed, he was sent to occupy Germany with the rest of his detachment. During that time, he sent a series of letters to his family describing what it was like in Germany at the very end of the war and during the German occupation. (One of his stories about his Occupation experiences, "Seeing Tina Home," was previously published on the Doughboy Foundation website.)  In the first of four new articles showcasing his WWI experiences, here is Thomas's story about his childhood friend "Mac" and how the Great War brought them together in unexpected circumstances.

Retired U.S. diplomat and lifelong amateur historian David Wessel was slogging away in 2021 on the inital draft of his historical novel when his wife interrupted his concentration to show him something. We all know how authors love to be disturbed while they are writing, but in this case the interruption proved fortuitous. Learn how the effort to solve a largely-forgotten World War I tragedy ended up being incorporated into Wessel's new novel, with an unexpected family connection, reflecting "something that very well could have happened." 

The Warrior Canine Connection (WCC) in Boyds, Maryland breeds, trains, and places dogs to be service animals for veterans at no cost. In keeping with their mission of service to veterans, WCC solicits names of veterans as an honorific for their puppies. In 2024, Catherine Bourgin nominated her  grandmother, WWI Hello Girl Marie Edmée LeRoux, as the namesake for a WCC Service Dog. Read the whole story and find out how a Yellow Labrador puppy named Edmée "began an odyssey connecting my grandmother's past with present and future of a potential Service Dog in Training (SDiT)," and how "In an unexpected way, Puppy Edmée will serve three veterans in her new home."

The advent of photography in warfare marked a pivotal moment in how the public perceived conflict. In 1914, cameras followed armies into mud, smoke, and broken towns, and the public saw war with new clarity. World War I photography turned distant fighting into shared sight, and it pushed readers to feel what reports could only describe. Learn how this momentous shift changed the ways people judge sacrifice, strategy, and leadership, because an image could stay in the mind long after a headline faded.

It's not often that a high school actor has the opportunity to become immersed in a character for most of the school year, but Sutton Van Lenten and her fellow cast members of "Hello Girls" have done  just that at Greenbrier High School in Columbia County, Georgia. Van Lenten plays Grace Banker, who led a group of women soldiers in World War I in France. They were telephone operators known as the "Hello Girls'. A musical based on their stories will be presented at 7 p.m. Jan. 29-31 at Greenbrier High School. Read more about this brand new production of the Hello Girls musical, and find out how to buy tickets for the production this week.

Arlington National Military Cemeteries (ANMC) is proud to announce the release of its new digital publication, A Tomb in the Heart of the Nation: The Origins and Creation of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This historical publication provides an engaging account of the creation, significance and enduring meanings of Arlington's most sacred site. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, dedicated in 1921 in the aftermath of World War I, stands as a powerful symbol of national gratitude and remembrance for those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the United States. Learn more about how A Tomb in the Heart of the Nation traces the WWI origins of this iconic memorial, the context surrounding its creation, and the profound impact it has had on the nation's collective memory.

Belleau Wood is where the Marine Corps became the legend we know of today. It's the battle that gave birth to the term "Devil Dogs," the fight that turned a small naval infantry branch into a legendary fighting force. Every Marine knows the name as each recruit is still required to learn the story. But few remember that U.S. Army soldiers fought and died in the battle, charging alongside the Marines into German machine-gun and artillery fire. Find out how, though they suffered thousands of losses, most Americans don't realize the role they played in one of the most legendary battles in American history.

While millions of Americans can name Western Front battles like Belleau Wood or the Meuse-Argonne, almost no one remembers the 332nd Infantry Regiment. These Ohio doughboys were the only American combat unit to fight against the Central Powers in a WWI theater outside of France, and helped end the war in Italy. The regiment formed at Camp Sherman, Ohio, on August 30, 1917. Its ranks filled with men from Cleveland, Akron, and Youngstown. They trained through Ohio's brutal winter at Camp Perry near Toledo, enduring mud, freezing rain, and even a smallpox scare. Read more, and discover how they expected to join the fight in France, but instead got orders that would make them one of the most unique units in American military history.

At 3:10 a.m. on July 4, 1918, American soldiers climbed out of their trenches in northern France. Most had never seen combat before. They had arrived in Europe weeks earlier. Now they were attacking German positions alongside battle-hardened Australian troops and were under the command of an Australian general. For the first time in American history, U.S. soldiers would fight under a foreign command. Learn how the new Doughboys, in 93 minutes, would help win what military historians call the first modern battle and forge a relationship with Australia that has lasted ever since.

On Sept. 12, 1918, amid mud, smoke, and the thunder of advancing American forces during the St. Mihiel Offensive, two figures destined for fame crossed paths for the first time. It was fitting that Douglas MacArthur and George S. Patton met not in a briefing room or a quiet rear-area command post, but on an exposed, shell-torn battlefield near the small French village of Essey-et-Maizerais. Both men already had reputations for leading from the front. Both were known for fearlessness that bordered on recklessness. And both would one day become two of the most celebrated American commanders of World War II. Their encounter under fire hinted at the Army leadership that would be tested again a generation later, albeit on a far larger scale. Read more, and learn how, in a moment when the United States was still new to large-scale modern war, a brief encounter offered a glimpse of the Army's next generation of high-profile battlefield commanders.

Today, during their Swedish military education as conscripts, the soldiers use to point out a soldier who has been an exceptionally good comrade or a soldier who has done something special worth mentioning. They use to be recognized at specific ceremonies when all personnel are gathered, and it use to be very much appreciated. It is also very nice to read about a Swede who during the Great War was appreciated by his fellow comrades. Here is the story about Sergeant Otto S Johnson, Headquarter Company, 39th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division, American Expeditionary Forces. (AEF)

Sometimes intense situations in life can lead to completely new tracks. I was reading digitized old Swedish newspapers from the period between 1914 to 1921, to scan them for interesting information about Swedish born soldiers and their fate during the Great War. Most of the information is dark and tragic, but this time a small note caught my eyes. The small note described the wedding between the Swedish born Sergeant in the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), Nils Widstrand, and Miss Marthe Dubeau. "A Swedish-French War Wedding". Of course I had to investigate further what these words meant.

Television was 100 years old on January 26, 2026. And it was born above an Italian cafe in Soho, in the UK. The man who first demonstrated television was John Logie Baird, a former engineering apprentice from Helensburgh. And although there are other places that can plausibly claim to be TV's birthplace, including a terraced street in Hastings, a hill in north London and Selfridges, most people agree that the decisive moment was a demonstration given to journalists in Frith Street on 26th January 1926. But learn how Baird might never have made it to London had he not been a sickly boy. When WWI broke out he wanted to enlist but was refused due to ill health, so he took a job with the Clyde Valley Electrical Power Company helping to make munitions for the British armed forces.

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

Our Doughboy MIA this month is Private Edwin C. Kitterman of New Middletown, Indiana. He entered the army in September, 1917, and went to Camp Taylor, Kentucky for training. Following his training, he was sent to Company K/120th Infantry/30th Division at Cap Sevier, South Carolina, with who he went to France in May of 1918. In France, the 30th Division was brigaded with the British Expeditionary Force up in the Somme River sector (along with the US 27th Division). Private Kitterman was killed in action at Bellecourt, France on September 29th, 1918 and had been initially buried in US Temporary Cemetery #636 at Bony, Department of the Aisne, France. What happened to him following is still a mystery. Doughboy MIA is awaiting paperwork to begin an investigation.

Would you like to be involved with solving the case of PVT Edwin C. Kitterman, 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.

Taps Bugler Design
Men's T-Shirts 

Show your support for the Doughboy Foundation sounding Daily Taps at the National World War I Memorial with this classic Men's 100% ring-spun Cotton Tee.

• Screen Printed Bugler on front side
• Various colors and sizes
• Material – 64000 Gildan Softstyle 100% ring-spun cotton
• Classic fit, seamless body

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

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

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