Two members of the M-HARP team used the opportunity of a cycling journey along the Western Front Way in August and September, 2026 to honor the legacy, and meet family members, of two of the Helllo Girls with direct connections to Belgium. Read Linda Jantzen's article Cycling Through History: A Journey Along the Western Front to learn more about the expedition through iconic World War I places and spaces. Then find out from Carolyn Timbie how the trip passed through towns that had ties to Hello Girls:Melanie Van Gastel and Edith Dodson, and how the team took the "especially meaningful opportunity" to meet family members, and pay tribute to the two women whose service was not recognized in their lifetimes. One more great result from the journey: a special family connection was discovered that resulted in an article about Edith Dodson and all the Hello Girls in the official magazine of the Royal National Veterans' Association of Belgium, taking the story of America's First Women Soldiers to a whole new audience. One could say that the M-HARP Team "hit for the cycle" on this e-bicycle journey!

This year the Fayette County (Ohio) Historical Society's annual cemetery tour will honor First Lieutenant Paul Hughey. The annual cemetery tour recognizes local persons of interest buried in the Washington Court House Cemetery. The story of local World War I pilot 1st Lt. Paul Hughey, and his heroic life and tragic death over France, will be featured. Learn more about Lt. Hughey, whose story of service and sacrifice also helps shine a light on still missing World War I airmen.

Courtland Jindra previously chronicled the effort to change the name of Pershing Park in Los Angeles, CA  here.  After the City Council took the unfortunate action, Courtland wrote a letter the Los Angeles Times newspaper on September 8, 2026 deploring the action. Courtland's letter has not yet been published in the Times but it has a message that everyone in the city and beyond should read and heed about how "Lest we forget" all too easily loses to forgetting.

"This is a magnificent large caliber artillery shell casing mounted on a wooden base, meticulously engraved and gifted to John Stokes Baldwin by Maud Darlington Butler, wife of Thomas S. Butler and mother of Marine Corps Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, 2x Medal of Honor & USMC Brevet Medal recipient. John Stokes Baldwin was killed in action on October 6th, 1918, while serving as 2nd Lieutenant in Company M, 4th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division." Michael Santoro explores more of the hidden history to be found in WWI artifacts. Read more about this "artifact of the First World War belonging to a soldier who never returned home to enjoy it," and why "Baldwin's memory will live on forever in the hearts and minds of those who came after."

While much has been written about efforts in the United States to mobilize men and women of military age to serve in the armed forces and civilian supporting organizations during World War I, less has been said about the mobilization effort for those too young to serve. Emmanuel Destenay notes that "between August 1914 and April 1917, Americans seized the opportunity presented by World War I to promote their respective agenda. Gilded Age and Progressive Era reformers and educators believed American youth needed to participate in civic activities to better themselves, while advocates of preparedness argued that children needed to defend and protect the nation. A myriad of war-related activities offered children the possibility to develop an altruistic mindset while helping Uncle Sam."  Learn more, and find out how, by the time that the U.S. entered World War I on April 6, 1917,  "children had, to a certain extent, already been mobilized."

Jocke Hallberg, on his fine Swedes in the Great War, 1914-1918 website, recounts "the remarkable story of the Swedish emigrant Frank Gustaf Severin Erickson." Building on the research of Frank's grandson, Mark Julius Erickson, Jocke gives a detailed account of Ericson's immigration to the United States before World War I, his enlistement to serve his new nation, and his service with the 77th Division in the pocket of the Charlevaux Ravine, where the men of the 'Lost Battalion' siege suffered a staggering casualty rate of roughly 72%. Read the entire story, and find out how Erickson, three days after the Armistice, was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action during the 'Lost Battalion' Siege.

In June 1917, the fields north of Chillicothe held nothing but farmland and a handful of dirt roads. By December, more than 2,000 buildings stood on that same ground, and over 40,000 soldiers had passed through what became Camp Sherman. How WWI reshaped Ohio's military geography can be measured in exactly that kind of speed. Entire cities of wood and canvas rose in months, on land that had been growing corn only weeks earlier. Industrial plants in Cleveland retooled almost overnight. Small towns swelled to several times their prewar size. Read more, and find out how Ohio didn't just contribute soldiers to World War I. It physically rearranged itself to build them.

A  World War I veteran, who passed away nearly 40 years ago, was formally laid to rest in a Nashville cemeter on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. John Repka served in the U.S. Navy during WWI. Along with his wife Celia, who died nearly 30 years ago, the couple's ashes were interred at Middle Tennessee Veterans Cemetery. Thought by his family to have been buried in Chicago, where he spent most of his life, it was discovered this past July that his ashes, and those of his wife, had actually been left in a storage unit. Read more, and learn how his family planned the funeral service because they "wanted to give him the honor and dignity of not just the military but the religious rights to find a final resting place that they never had."

U.S. Navy aviation entered World War I as a tiny force of just 54 obsolete aircraft and 48 pilots, but expanded rapidly into a major anti-submarine patrol network operating 44 stations globally by the 1918 Armistice. Naval aviators flew seaplanes, dirigibles, and kite balloons on more than 22,000 patrols across 3 million nautical miles, targeting German U-boats threatening Allied supply shipping. By the Armistice, the U.S. Navy was operating  over 2,100 aircraft, 15 airships, and 215 kite balloons. Learn more about how the Navy's aviation got big quick, and see why, though U.S. naval aircraft did not receive credit for a single sinking in WWI, they created considerable interference with U-boat operations, especially in the last year of the Great War. 

Turns out that eating gluten-free was also popular during World War I. Wartime in the United States meant that certain supplies, including food, were temporarily in short order. Crops were donated to help feed troops and others involved in the conflict abroad. In this conflict, wheat was one of those crops that became scarce stateside. As a response to the shortage, the U.S. government encouraged people to eat lots and lots of potatoes instead — five bushels, in fact, and each bushel is about 60 pounds — in addition to gluten-free flour substitutes, like oats, rice, corn, and buckwheat. Read more, and find out how, while going gluten-free wasn't a health choice per se, it does go to show you that the concept isn't new!

The U.S. entered World War I largely unprepared for industrial-scale manufacturing. Consequently, U.S. Coastal Artillery Corps (CAC) units deployed to Europe were primarily equipped with British and French weaponry.  The CAC converted older coastal guns onto train carriages to move them along European tracks. These larger weapons struck deep targets behind enemy lines, helping cripple German rail nodes and supply dumps. They fought prominently in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives. But discover how these successes at the operational level led to a case of drawing a "lesson" that was an entirely erroneous application of wartime experience, and led to the U.S. fielding a weapon in World War II that was unable to perform its mission, and was obsolete before it was built.

Vehicles such as the Dodge Model 30 and various converted civilian cars used in the First World War and the Mexican Expedition proved that vehicles had a place on the battlefield. But while the Ford Model T is certainly impressive off-road, the terrain did prove too tricky for many adapted civilian vehicles at times, so a more specialized and four-wheel-drive answer was still required. Learn how the lessons of WWI led to the development of more specialized and four-wheel-drive vehicles, whch culminated in the familiar four-wheel-drive Jeep that is synonomous with WWII.

Before he became a legend of the open road, Eddie Rickenbacker was destined to make history in the air. The Association of the United States Army Book Program has released Medal of Honor: Eddie Rickenbacker, the latest full-color digital graphic novel in its Medal of Honor series. Readers can view or download the complimentary issue now at the link below.

Rickenbacker arrived in the U.S. Army Air Service with the nerves, instincts, and mechanical know-how of a professional race car driver. He emerged from World War I as the most successful American flying ace of the conflict, credited with 26 aerial victories and awarded a record eight Distinguished Service Crosses. Read more, and learn how his final Distinguished Service Cross recognized an extraordinary solo attack against seven enemy aircraft, during which Rickenbacker shot down two. That award was later upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

As men left their jobs to serve their country in war overseas, women replaced their jobs.  Women filled many jobs that were brought into existence by wartime needs.  As a result, the number of women employed greatly increased in many industries.  In the U.S. there were, before the war, over eight million women in paid occupations.  After the war began, not only did their numbers increase in common lines of work, but as one newspaper stated, "There has been a sudden influx of women into such unusual occupations as bank clerks, ticket sellers, elevator operator, chauffeur, street car conductor, railroad trackwalker, section hand, locomotive wiper and oiler, locomotive dispatcher, block operator, draw bridge attendant, and employment in machine shops, steel mills, powder and ammunition factories, airplane works, boot blacking and farming."  Read more about women's active involvement in many industries, and the many new roles that American women played during World War I.

Few stories of World War I are better known than the story of the Lost Battalion, a unit in the 308th Infantry of the 77th Division commanded by Major Charles W. Whittlesey. Numerous books and at least two movies exist to tell the dramatic story of the Lost Battalion. Few people realize, however, the remarkable story of the Connecticut 17th Regiment during the Battle of Long Island on 27 August 1776. Like Major Whittlesey's World War I unit, the Connecticut 17th, a unit of about 300 men, was cut off from the rest of its army. It was surrounded by thousands of British and Hessian soldiers; nevertheless, the 17th inflicted more casualties on the enemy that day on Battle Hill than any other patriot unit. Most importantly, it guarded the flank of the Maryland 400, enabling that valiant unit's rearguard action to effect the successful retreat of Washington's army from Brooklyn. One member of the Connecticut 17th was Private Duren Whittlesey of Haddam, Connecticut, a third cousin four generations removed from Major Charles W. Whittlesey. Learn more about the amazing historical coincidence that these two distant cousins found themselves in desperate, parallel circumstances in their respective wars a century apart..

Sometimes it's not what you say that means the most, it's what you don't say. Certain words carry a heavy weight when said by the right person at the right time. If it's forceful and/or dirty enough, it could be burned into your memory. For some soldiers in World War I, one word in particular was used so often that leaving it out was enough to tell them they were in danger. Read more, and learn how saying the "F-word" was so routine in the American trenches that when your sergeant suddenly didn't use it, even the most scared or shell-shocked troop knew that something was very wrong. 

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

Our Doughboy MIA this month is Private Verne Blythe, born in Marshall, Indiana on May 28th in 1892. Blythe was working as a telegraph operator in Danville, Illinois before the war for what would eventually become AT&T when he enlisted in early June, 1917. He received his training at Jefferson Barracks in Missouri and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas before embarking for overseas duty on February 19th, 1918 as a member of Company C, 5th Field Signal Battalion which was part of the 3rd Division. During the second battle of the Marne – where the 3rd would gain everlasting fame as the 'Rock of the Marne Division' – Private Blythe was severely wounded by artillery fire on July 15th, 1918, and died soon thereafter. Little more of his story known at this time, but it is currently believed that he may have later been buried as an Unknown.

Would you like to be involved with solving the case of PVT Verne Blythe, 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.

Featured this month in The Doughboy Foundation Shop are our three great Doughboy Foundation Bio-Washed Classic "Dad Hats."

The Navy blue caps feature choice of the traditional Embroidered Flag Design (top), the new Embroidered Poppy Design (middle), and our exclusive Battlefield Soldier Design (bottom). Check out the designs, and select your favorite!

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

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

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