On February 20, 2025, Verizon Innovative Learning announced it has now reached 8.5 million students, moving closer to its goal of empowering 10 million learners by 2030. For the 2024–2025 school year, the initiative welcomed 34 additional schools and school systems, expanding its network beyond 590. Now even more teachers and students can access the Doughboy Foundation’s award-winning World War I teaching resources. Find out more about the Doughboy Foundation's initiative to ensure that students and educators had access to engaging, high-quality materials that highlight WWI’s enduring legacy in America.

When the U.S. joined World War I in 1917, 1,250 African American college graduates began their training to become military officers. Fort Des Moines became the first — and only — training site for Black officers during the war. Due to the efforts of historian Don North, the State Historical Society of Iowa has approved a new historical marker to commemorate the site.  Read more about the WWI training of Black officers at Fort Des Moines, which North says has significance on par with that of the Tuskegee Airmen of WWII.

When World War I erupted, the United States was already experiencing waves of change, but for women, the war would prove to be a defining moment. Before the conflict, women were fighting for their place in society, advocating for the right to vote, and slowly entering the workforce in greater numbers. Yet, despite these early advances, their roles were still largely defined by traditional expectations of home and family. However, war has a way of accelerating change, and World War I did just that. Learn more about how, by the time the war ended, American women had redefined their place in society, proving their worth in industry, healthcare, and even the military. The post-war world would never look the same.

It’s become increasingly evident that U.S. President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state isn’t just bluster to achieve a more advantageous trade position. So far at least, he hasn’t mentioned any use of military force to realize territorial expansion and U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz said he doesn’t think Trump “has any plans to invade Canada.” But a plan to so do already exists and has for nearly 100 years. Find out why U.S. military strategists after the First World War were devising a number of contingency plans against the UK; even though the nations were allies in WWI the First World War, the relationship between them remained frosty in the intervening years.

“Private Jones,” a new musical about a deaf Welsh sniper in World War I, racked up 10 nominations for the Helen Hayes Awards, helping Signature Theatre edge the Kennedy Center for the top tally in advance of May’s annual celebration of the best in D.C. theater. Signature’s 25 nods also included seven for its boisterous revival of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” Learn more about the boundary-pushing “Private Jones,” which tells its story through American Sign Language, British Sign Language, spoken English and Foley sound effects, which counted nominations for writer-director Marshall Pailet and actors Johnny Link and Erin Weaver among its haul.

The World War I Historical Association is pleased to announce a new initiative, the Colonel Paul F. Braim Student Paper Prize. The award is a $250 prize for the best undergraduate and/or master-level graduate student paper on an aspect of World War I (1914-18). Papers nominated for this award may not exceed 3,500 words in length excluding footnotes and works cited. Students who wish to be considered for the 2025 prize should submit an electronic version of the completed paper by October 1st with the awardee announced on November 11th. Learn more about the rules and deadlines of the competition, and where and how students should submit their scholarly paper entries.

In the early years of WWI, more than 2,200 Americans from New England states volunteered for service in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). In fact, some battalions were formed entirely of American volunteers, including the 97th Battalion, CEF, famously nicknamed “The American Legion”. These volunteers served on both the western and Siberian fronts as soldiers, nurses, engineers, and stretcher bearers. During WWII, approximately 35,000 Americans volunteered, serving in all branches of the Canadian Armed Forces. Read more about this history, and find out how a Massachusetts organization has partnered with the Consulate General of Canada in Boston to developed a plaque honoring American soldiers who served in the Canadian Armed Forces in both World Wars.

As the American military mobilized to enter World War I in 1917, its ranks filled with a cross-section of American society, including immigrants from around the world. The nation entered the war during a period of peak immigration; between 1901 and 1920, almost 14.5 million immigrants arrived in the U.S. Some Americans welcomed the new immigrants, while others called for increased restrictions on immigration. These sentiments impacted the immigrants who took up arms for the U.S. during World War I. Foreign-born soldiers composed over 18 percent of the U.S. Army during World War I. Almost one in five draftees was born overseas. Learn how many immigrants also volunteered to serve in the military, often to prove their loyalty to the U.S. and demonstrate their patriotism for their new country. 

Since Queen Victoria instituted the Victoria Cross in 1856, five American-born men have received Britain’s highest military award for valor. Four of those awardees were Americans who earned Britain’s highest honor in World War I while passing themselves off as Canadians, one in 1917, and three in 1918. Read more about these four heroes, and how their "gallantry and fearlessness" in battle led to the award of the medal.

When Lucy Steeds was researching her debut novel, The Artist, she realized that writing about art in the 1920s was impossible without an understanding of how the First World War had left its mark — physical or mental — on everyone who lived through it. One powerful source was nurses’ testimonies. Learn about the hidden stories of suffering — and excitement — Steeds found as she "dug deep into the archives of nurses’ testimonies from WWI."

In 1918, when the George M. Cohan song “Over There” entreated young men to “grab your gun, on the run…do your bit, show your grit…make your Daddy glad …make your Mother proud,” thousands heeded this call. Four years into World War I, a young Walt Disney was one of them. Filled with patriotic enthusiasm and captivated by recruitment ads like “The Red Cross versus the Iron Cross,” young men barely past boyhood signed up to travel overseas and fight in The Great War. Read about how, as Walt reflected much later, “The things I did during those ten months I was overseas added up to a lifetime of experience…I know being on my own at an early age… made me more self reliant.”

Jocke Hallberg's talks about his research around different places in Sweden led him to a specific interest in the 54th Pioneer Infantry Regiment, which belonged to the American Expeditionary Forces in the Great War. Conversation with audience member brought forth the stories of two Swedish friends (Per Erik Persson and Nils Erik Larson) who served in the same unit, the second battalion, in the the 54th Pioneer Infantry Regiment. Learn the info on these two soldiers led to the discovery 36 more Swedes (at last count) who served in the Regiment during World War I.

The Sykes-Picot agreement, known officially as the Asia Minor Agreement of 1916, was arguably the first in a series of attempts by colonial powers to mold the borders of the Middle East. Signed in secret at the height of the first world war, Sykes-Picot was an agreement between France and Great Britain, approved by Russia. It would have lasting consequences for the region and be the genesis of most conflict in the Middle East. Read more, and learn how the WWI Sykes-Picot Agreement significantly affected regional politics, and how the history is more complicated than many contemporary narratives suggest.

Terri Reuvers of Minnesota has discovered, and is trying to solve, a military mystery: a World War One-era plaque issued by Disabled American Veterans to Michael J. Mahoney. “I thought, this is so outstanding, I want to make sure it goes to the family of the person,” Reuvers says.  Learn more about the family tradition that led to her discovery of the WWI artifact, and the broad efforts underway to reunite it with the Doughboy's family.

Preserving WWI artifacts is essential for understanding history. These relics connect people to past events, showing the impact of war. Moving and storing them requires specialized methods to prevent damage. Without careful handling, these objects could decay, losing their historical value. Find out more about why and how World War I artifacts are moved can determine how well they survive to inform and educate future generations.

On this day in aviation history, February 9, 1916, the Sopwith Pup made its first flight. A small fighter even for the standards of WWI, the Sopwith Pup was the darling of British pilots from the autumn of 1916 to the spring of 1917. Learn more about how,  after its brief period of dominance over the Western Front, the Pup served as a valuable trainer for new pilots before transitioning into aircraft such as its successor, the Sopwith Camel.

Gaijin Entertainment has announced that the VR Flight Simulator Aces of Thunder will feature World War I aircraft as well, including the Red Baron’s Fokker Dr.I, the SPAD S.XIII, and many more. Promising “authentically detailed cockpits, historically accurate weaponry, and realistic flight models,” Gaijin asserts that the experience provided by World War I aircraft, which is often ignored in this kind of simulator, is sure to be very different compared to WWII warbirds. Learn more about this realistic WWI flight experience.

In WWI the US Army Air Service had to rely on its foreign allies for combat aircraft, but this did not stop American manufacturers from attempting to fulfill the US military’s need for combat-capable fighter aircraft. However, the first fighter aircraft to win a U.S. military contract was fated to become an oddity remembered only by a few aviation historians: the Albree Pigeon-Fraser.

Popular culture has romanticized the aviators of World War I. But the evolving state of the equipment and the deadly battles in the skies led many young fliers to early graves. A two-part MagellanTV documentary explores how, less than a decade after the Wright Brothers proved the viability of manned flight on the wind-swept coast of North Carolina, airplanes were pressed into service as weapons of war.

Katherine Stinson learned to fly because she wanted to go to Europe and study piano. The first female owner of a flight school in the U.S. did get to Europe -- as a volunteer American ambulance driver in World War I. Learn more about Katherine and the Stinson School of Flying, officially opened on 13 November 1915, and listed as the second oldest continuously operated airport in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi.

Hiram Percy Maxim produced the first practical and successful suppressor. His father created machine guns, but Maxim Jr. created suppressors. He was a brilliant man who saw a future where military adoption of suppressors was possible. In 1910, he produced a suppressor aimed at equipping the Springfield M1903, the rifle of choice for the United States military. Read more about the history of suppressor use by American military forces from the earliest days of their invention to World War I, and now in the 21st. Century.

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

Our Doughboy MIA this month is Private Edward Reese, born on May 14^th, 1889, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Little is known about his civilian life. He was an unemployed candy maker at the time of his draft registration. Edward was inducted into military service on April 8^th, 1918, in Philadelphia and assigned to the 305th Sanitary Train at Camp Lee, Virginia. Later, he was transferred to the Medical Detachment of the 319th Infantry, 80th Division, and sailed for France in May 1918.

Private Reese was killed by an enemy shell during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Captain H.W. Wade, the battalion surgeon, provided an eyewitness account for the 80th Division records:

“Private Reese was killed about 2 P.M. October 10th, 1918. Was caused by shell explosion and he died instantly. The place of occurrence was the Bois des Ogons, about 1 ¼ kilometers north of Nantillois, France. His grave location is unknown.”

Read PVT Reese's entire story

Would you like to be involved with solving the case of Private Edward Reese, 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.

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