On April 28, 2023, the Missouri University School of Law Veterans Clinic Symposium will present Discrimination in the Military and Thereafter: United We Stand, Divided We Fall. Since 1775, when the U.S. military was founded, a wide range of discrimination has been practiced, including formal segregation, cultural racism, and gender inequality throughout the years. One of the historical episodes that will be in focus is the case of the WWI Hello Girls telephone operators, who served in uniform but were denied veterans benefits. Click here to read more about America’s first women soldiers, the long effort to give them the recognition that they earned with their wartime service, and how you can attend the Clinic in person or remotely.

Nimrod Thompson (Rod) Frazer, a decorated Korean War Veteran, and honorary chairman of the Alabama World War I Centennial Committee, died on March 7^th, 2023, in his native city of Montgomery. Commissioner Monique Seefried of the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission, a long-time friend and associate of Frazer, recalls how his initial interest in WWI, driven by the wartime service of his own father, blossomed into a lifetime focus on remembering those who served. Click here to to read her entire thoughtful and fond remembrance of the man from Alabama who "always gave the image of an America where everyone could realize their dreams.”

For Jazz Appreciation Month, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) honors one of the most famous regimental bands of World War I — the regimental band of the 369th U.S. Infantry, led by Lt. James Reese Europe. Europe joined the regiment at the request of the Regimental Commander to form a band. He was already a famous musician leading the Clef Club band since 1912. He also arranged musical numbers and performed with Irene and Vernon Castle, a famous dance duo of the time. Click here to read the entire article, and learn how James Reese Europe and his band changed history, especially musical history, in World War I. 

On the HISTORYNET web site, writer Zita Ballinger Fletcher spotlights the extraordinary work of photographer Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy, who retraced important World War I battles in his book series, “In the Centennial Footsteps of the Great War.” Says Fletcher: "Szalay-Berzeviczy’s images succeed in capturing the essence of both the triumphant and tragic milestones of this sweeping conflict."  Click here to read the entire article, and view a selection of stunning photographs from Szalay-Berzeviczy's two books.

The Doughboy arrived in Monticello on January 19, 1923, and was dedicated on April 8, 1923. On April 6, 2023, the 100th-year Celebration of the Doughboy took place at historic Wayne Theater in Monticello. Held indoors due to inclement weather, the celebration drew both current and expatriate members of the Monticello community to celebrate the iconic figure. Click here to read more, see photos, and watch a wonderful video about the celebration of a monument that has meant so much to a community for over 100 years.

One afternoon in February, Rich Urban walked into the newsroom of The Greeneville Sun with a century-old mystery to share. By late March, the mystery was solved, and on April 4, Urban’s persistence paid off with a trip to the home of Cynthia Cox in Knoxville. A USAF vet and and secretary of the local American Legion Post, Urban delivered a funeral flag for Cox’s ancestor, James “Henry” White, a local World War I soldier killed in action in France. Click here to read the entire article, and learn how Urban wouldn't quit short of his goal of seeing the World War I flag "get back to family if it’s at all possible."

When the U.S. Congress voted to declare war on Germany and join World War I, Yakima County in Washington State quickly moved to a war footing. Even before the overwhelming vote in Congress to declare war — 50 House members and six senators objected —Yakima County was gearing up for a possible fight. Click here to read more about the county's running start on war preparation, and learn how all but one member of a local high school’s graduating class that year enlisted; the one who didn’t was turned away due to a physical disability.

One of the casualties of the March 31 storm that hit the Rochelle, IL area was a 100-year-old tree at Memorial Park honoring those that died serving their country in World War I. The tree was uprooted completely and was found the morning of April 1. Near the upturned roots, the plaque commemorating it that reads “This tree planted in memory of Rochelle World War dead” still stood. Now local historian Tom McDermott has sprouted a plan to bring the century-old tree back to life again to continue its mission of honoring those who served. Click here to read more, and learn what he is doing and how perhaps you can assist the effort with the right kind of expertise.

We have previously published articles here and here about Belgian John Sterkendries' mission to ride his motorcycle around the border of the continental United States "with a goal of raising awareness of the sacrifices of the past while seeing American sites of remembrance." Next month we'll have a new article about the third leg of his journey around and across the USA. But this month, the American Legion web site has published a great article about John and his amazing journey honoring Americans and Belgians who served their nations in World War I.

Mike Hanlon has begun a new series on his Roads to the Great War web site that looks at "out-of-the-way monuments and memorials that are sometimes very substantial but have only the barest inscriptions and few or no details about what happened in this location that was worthy of memorialization. It’s also often evident that there have been few visitors to the site. In this series, I’m going to try tell the stories of some of the little-visited, little-remembered memorials." Click here to read the first article in the new series, about the monument to the AEF’s 4th Division near Brieulles-sur-Meuse for its service in the Meuse-Argonne Campaign .

By World War I, most navies centered their power around massive battleships. However, the recent introduction of biplanes to warfare would change that. While most think of Pearl Harbor in 1941 as the first event to highlight the shift from battleships to carriers, the first crack in the Dreadnoughts' armor came in WWI when biplanes armed with machine guns for defense and bombs for offense created a new field of warfare. Click here to read the entire insightful article on TheCollector web site, and learn how "Few took note of this new weapon’s potential in naval warfare" that would ultimately doom the mighty battleships.

Among all the vessels built as cutters for either the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service or Coast Guard, one of the most unique was the Cutter Snohomish. The Norfolk-built cutter, designed specifically for operations on the stormy Pacific Northwest coast, served in the Atlantic during World War I. In his The Long Blue Line series article on the United States Coast Guard web site, writer Timothy Dring looks at the novel origins of Snohomish, her early days on the Pacific Coast, and how 1917 changed everything for the plucky vessel. Click here to read the entire article, and find out how, almost 10 years to the day from the cutter’s first departure from Norfolk to the West Coast, Snohomish found herself at war in the Atlantic.

Writing for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal newspaper in Texas, Ambassador Tibor Nagy, former ,Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, looks at "Russia’s international gangsterism and China’s moves to replace America’s carefully constructed international system," and notes that "Our nation’s responses to these two serious international challenges – which imperil not only global stability but our own future – bear remarkable parallels to how America’s naivete, isolationism, and dithering were major factors in the collapse of global order in the aftermath of World War I and led to the catastrophe of World War II." Click here to read the entire article, and learn how, after World I, "Our absence from the international arena had devastating consequences" that could very well happen again in the Twenty-first Century.

Writing for the Washington Post newspaper, Vaughn Rasberry looks at the new book Wounded World by Chad L. Williams that "recounts Du Bois’s disillusionment over the war and his struggle to publish a book about Black soldiers’ experiences." The new book "narrates the impact of the war on Du Bois and his anguished effort to write a definitive history of Black participation in the Great War. " Click here to read more, and find out about the lifelong fallout Du Bois endured because of his decision "to encourage his readers to set aside their struggles in the name of patriotism and national unity."

On March 21, 1917, Loretta Perfectus Walsh was sworn in as a chief yeoman, becoming the first female chief petty officer in the U.S. Navy. Four days earlier, Walsh had been the first woman to enlist in the Navy, having the distinction of being the first woman to serve in any of the U.S. armed forces other than a nursing assignment. Click here to read her entire story, and see how the career of the Navy pioneer was cut short by the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918 - and how her legacy is now honored on the Navy's oldest warship.

In 1918, Major L. Gordon Sandford — an Australian who had fought with the British army in France and Belgium and had been injured — sailed to New York. He was one of several officers sent to the United States to help raise money for World War I which America had joined the previous year. But there were two things about Sandford that no one knew: (1) he was on a secret mission from the British Ministry of Information, and (2) he would go on to become the grandfather of Euronews writer Alasdair Sandford. Click here for the grandson's recounting of Gordon's secret mission, and learn how "the end of my grandfather’s tour brought letters of appreciation and “gratifying” loan pledges" for the Liberty Loan program. 

Stars and Stripes newspaper was first published during World War I (1914-1918) and then continuously since World War II. A donation was made to Special Collections and Archives of the ZSR Library at Wake Forest University which consisted of a group of cartoons from the WWI Stars and Stripes. Printed on newsprint over 100 years old, the yellowed and very brittle cartoon pages presented a real challenge to conservators at the Museum. Click here to read the entire article, and learn how Preservation Librarian Craig Fansler found just the right approach to preserve this "capsule of one aspect of the war and life in the trenches" for present and future researchers.

Zombie myths trace their roots back as far as ancient Greece, and they have a particular infamy in West African culture, but the first portrayal on the silver screen of the reanimated dead returning to wreak havoc may, in fact, have been in a French silent film about the horrors of World War I called “J’Accuse” (1919). Director Abel Gance set the stage for the genre by featuring soldiers of World War I rising from their graves. Click here to read more about this genre pioneer, and how World War I soldiers risen from the dead created the zombie paradigm that movie makers have followed for over 100 years. Sort of like... zombies...it's like zombie movies is the genre that just won't die...

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

Our Doughboy MIA this month is First Lieutenant George Vaughn Seibold, 148^th Aero Squadron and grandson to two Union Officers in the Civil War, one who received the Medal of Honor leading an attack at Reams Stations, Virginia. First Lieutenant Seibold shot down two enemy aircraft while fighting for his survival on his last day.  If he had survived his last aerial battle, and had the two victories been confirmed, his total enemy aircraft destroyed would be six, making him an American fighter ace.

George V. Seibold was born on 6 February 1893 in Washington D.C. to George G Seibold, a proofreader and linotype operator with the Washington Star and secretary of the Columbia Typographical Union, and Grace Darling (Whitaker) Seibold, daughter to Brigadier General Edward Washburn Whitaker (1^st CT Cavalry). His family were prominently known Republicans in Washington circles.  Grace Seibold being close friends with Grace Coolidge, wife to Calvin Coolidge, the wartime Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and man who would be Vice President (1921-1923) and then President (1923-1929).

George V. Seibold was known as kind, protective of his siblings, fun loving, easy-going, and charming. He was a good student and capable athlete. Popular with his classmates, George Seibold graduated from Washington’s Central High School enrolled in the McKinley Manual Training School instead of attending a university. In 1912 he worked in the Government Printing Office and then as the private secretary to Congressman Dr. Thomas Nelson Page. George Seibold then moved to Chicago to work in a law firm of a family member but left that employment to work as a real estate broker for Aldis & Company. He would work there for four years only leaving in 1917 to fight for the United States in Europe.

While at Aldis & Company he attended the first Reserve Officer’s Training Camp in Plattsburgh, New York in 1916. His many positive traits made him ideal leadership material and as a result received an evaluation as an excellent candidate to become an Army Officer. During his time in Chicago he met and began dating his future wife, Kathryn Irene Benson, a fellow Aldis & Company employee.

On 2 April 1918 the United States declared war on Germany and George V. Seibold entered the Officer’s Reserve Corps Training Camp at Fort Sheridan, Illinois in July 1917. Before the end of that month, he would find out he was accepted into the Army’s Aviator training program. He immediately proposed marriage to Kathryn on 17 July 1917, and married four days later. They would spend a day and a half together before he departed for Toronto, Canada to begin his flight training.

Click to read George Seibold's whole story.

Would you like to be involved with solving these cases? You can! Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to our non-profit organization today, and help us bring them home! Doughboy MIA will be mounting another mission to France this summer. Help us do the best job possible and give today, with our thanks.

Poppy Lapel Pin

Back In Stock!!

• Exclusive Commemorative WW1 Poppy Lapel Pin
• Soft enamel color design
• Approx. 1.5 inch in dia.
• Standard military clasp

Proceeds from the sale of these items will help build the new National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC.

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