The 2023 national ceremony will take place on November 11, starting at 10:30am Eastern at the National WWI Memorial in Washington D.C., with the Bell Tolling exactly at 11am. All interested people in the Washington D.C. region are invited to join us live at the National WWI Memorial, or to watch the live stream wherever you are. Click here to read more about the national Bells of Peace event, and how you can participate.

Tens of thousands have participated in local Bells of Peace ceremonies in past years, on November 11 at 11am local time wherever they are. To support these ceremonies across the nation and around the world, the Foundation has created a WebApp, available at BellsOfPeace.org, for anyone who plans to participate in Bells of Peace ceremonies. Organizations or groups planning local Bells of Peace events are encouraged to register their activities via the website. Click to learn more about Bells of Peace, and how individuals and organizations anywhere can participate in this annual commemorative event.

But after October 1, when the dust has settled and Congress is back in normal operations, it will be a great time to reach out to them with a strong reminder that you support the Hello Girls Congressional Gold Medal legislation to honor America's first women soldiers. The Hello Girls made critical battlefield tactical communications work effectively for U.S. and French military forces on the front lines of World War I, saving many lives by helping bring the long war to a faster end. But when the Hello Girls returned home after WWI ended, they were denied veterans status and benefits until 1977. The Hello Girls earned and deserve the recognition of a Congressional Gold Medal, and you can help make that happen this Congress!

The renowned Swedish heavy metal band, Sabaton, has introduced a groundbreaking charitable museum initiative entitled “History Rocks“. The band’s forthcoming animated film, “The War To End All Wars – The Movie” is being offered to museums for free showings between November 4th and 19th – the two weeks surrounding the 105^th anniversary of Armistice Day, with the museums keeping all gate receipts. Some 20 U.S. museums have already signed up, and more are sought. Click here to read more, and find out how your favorite history or military museum can take part in this project, the goal of which is "to drive millions of Sabaton fans worldwide, as well as all history enthusiasts, into these participating museums."

The 369th Experience was selected to perform in the 2024 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. This will mark the first Macy’s Parade appearance by the 369th Experience a marching band dedicated to acknowledging, educating, and preserving the legacy of the 369th Infantry Regiment, also known as the Harlem Hellfighters, a regiment made up of African American and Puerto Rican soldiers, which was one of the longest-serving and most decorated units of the American Expeditionary Force in WWI. The 369th Experience is endorsed by the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission and the Doughboy Foundation. Click here to learn more about this exciting milestone for the 369th Experience, and the support they will need to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to tell the story of WWI and the Harlem Hellfighters to millions of Americans in 2024.

Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas is working toward awarding Mexican American World War I hero Private Marcelino Serna with a posthumous Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest military honor — this Hispanic Heritage Month. Serna, the most decorated Texan of WWI, was the first Mexican American to receive the Distinguished Service Cross. “Despite his eligibility for exemption from service due to his immigrant status, Serna chose to courageously fight on behalf of the United States during World War I," Escobar said. Click here to read more about Marcelino Serna, and why his service is deserving of the recognition of the Medal of Honor over 100 years later.

The historic DH-4 World War I biplane has a new home in Wichita, KS’s Old Town. Known locally as ‘the Bleckley plane’, this DH-4 is one of only five left in the world, and is the only one licensed to fly. It is identical in make, model and markings to the same plane flown to fame over France, in WWI, by Wichita native Erwin Bleckley. Bleckley’s fatal last flight, which attempted to locate, map and re-supply the Lost Battalion, earned him the Medal of Honor. Click here to read more about this historic aircraft, and learn why Bleckley’s flight has gone down in history as the most famous and legendary of all the missions conducted by the US Army Air Service during ‘the Great War’.

A Texas woman, curious about what happened to a relative who died while serving in World War I, recently found his resting place in France — likely one of several Mexican Americans who died abroad and whose stories have been largely forgotten. San Antonio College history professor Lisa Ramos in July traveled to France and went searching for her great-great-granduncle, Crispin Rodriguez. Click here to read more about the results of her search, and how scholars are examining the role that World War I played in the lives of Latinos, then and now.

Plagued by scorching temperatures and drought, the Neches River in southeast Texas has revealed the remains of a World War I shipwreck. The man who stumbled upon it, Bill Milner, was jet skiing on the river when he ran into something. He looked down and saw the remains of what appeared to be a large wooden boat. The wreck—which actually includes the ruins of several vessels—are the remains of wooden ships built in nearby Beaumont, TX, during World War I. Click here to read more about these vessels revealed by a receding river, and how they came to be abandoned in streams of East Texas after World War I.

The potential relocation of a more than 100 year old World War I Doughboy statue from a busy intersection in downtown Monticello, KY is giving local residents and elected officials considerable heartburn. Although it’s not clear if or when the move would happen, two magistrates said hundreds of residents have told them they don’t want the Doughboy moved, and the commander of a veterans group said some members have talked of starting a petition against moving it. Click here to read the whole story, and learn about the people and groups fighting to keep "an iconic figure that’s been there for a hundred years in the middle of our downtown.”

For nearly 400 years, women in Western Europe and North America were expected to wear corsets beneath their clothing — restrictive, binding bustiers that cinched at the waist and opened toward the chest to accentuate the natural curves of the body. This all changed around the First World War, when a shortage of metal, the dominant material in corsets, led to a redistribution of resources as well as a cultural shift that brought women into the work force in large numbers. Click here to read more, and learn how the exigencies of World War I reshaped the foundations of women's fashions in the 20th Century.

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

Our Doughboy MIA this month is Carter Landram Ovington. Born on 1 May 1897 in Baden-Baden, Germany to American parents, First Lieutenant Carter Landram Ovington was the only child & son of Edward J. Ovington and Georgia Cheatham Maize Ovington. His father and his uncle were the heads of the New York based Ovington Brothers Company with locations in Germany and Paris, France. Because his father managed the European portion of the family business, Carter spent his first ten years in Germany followed by eight years in France.

After the United States declared war on German on 6 April 1918 and just after his twentieth birthday, Carter Ovington, while attending the Ecole Superieure de l’Electricite (Superior School of Electricity) in Paris, decided to join France’s Service Aeronautique on 20 May 1917. He immediately was accepted and sent to the French aviation schools at Avord, Pau, and Cazeaux, receiving his pilot’s brevet on 17 August 1917 with the rank of Caporal (Corporal).

The young aviator was delighted to find he was being sent to advanced training to become a pursuit (fighter) pilot. Completing the training on 12 December 1917 Caporal Ovington was subsequently assigned to Escadrille SPA85 flying the rugged SPAD VII produced by the Societe Pour L’Aviation et ses Derives (Society for Aviation and its Derivatives). As an American citizen flying for France, Corporal Ovington was now an official member of the Lafayette Flying Corps.

Click to Read Carter Ovington's whole story.

Would you like to be involved with solving the case of First Lieutenant Carter Landram Ovington, and all the other Americans still in MIA status from WWI? 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.

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: 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 of the Great War 

This notable 2-volumn 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. 

The Memorial will be officially dedicated in May 2024 after the main sculpture, A Soldier’s Journey, is installed. Learn more and purchase here: Greatwarbook.com/us/

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