On Saturday, the Doughboy Foundation participated in the national Wreaths Across America program with a ceremony at the National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC. Wreaths were laid in honor of veterans from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine Services, Space Force and for all those who remain missing in action. Wreaths sponsored through the Doughboy Foundation were also laid at Arlington National Cemetery. In addition, the Hello Girls Military Honors and Remembrance Project, a Doughboy Foundation Special Project, had its initial Wreaths Across America campaign, with sponsored wreaths laid at Ft. Lincoln National Cemetery in Maryland and elsewhere.

That list just hits the high points of a very active and successful year for the Foundation. We appreciate all the donations and other support that makes it possible for us to continue our work as Stewards of the National World War I Memorial. We're looking forward to another active and eventful year in 2026, and invite you to participate in all the upcoming events you'll be hearing about in each monthly issue of the WWI DISPATCH.

Theatrical director Maeve Smith of Sonoma, CA has "been given the extraordinary opportunity to direct The Hello Girls for a second time, while also helping to honor another “Hello Girl” whose service has gone unrecognized for more than a century,"  and she couldn't be happier. Smith says that the Ross Valley Players in Marin County, California production of The Hello Girls musical will be "the first time in my career I’ve returned to a show I’ve already staged, and it feels like an incredible gift." But Smith and the cast of the show will be giving back as well: learn how they will be participating in a solemn ceremony to honor a California Hello Girl with the dignity of a named headstone acknowledging her World War I military service.

In 1914, three of the U.S. Navy's fuel ships, massive colliers, ships that would usually transport coal to fuel other ships, would receive unusual tasking from the Navy and garner public attention. The three colliers became Christmas ships, carrying donated clothing, toys and handmade gifts for the children of war-torn Europe. Learn more about how the Navy ships were the carriers of "thousands upon thousands of Christmas presents collected by the press of America for the children of the warring countries of Europe," and how a song about the Christmas Ship helped galvanize "the beautiful spirit of generosity (that) touched the people on both continents."

The Western Front. Christmas. A German soldier sets down his rifle and steps into No Man’s Land, singing “Silent Night”. Thus begins an extraordinary night of fellowship, music, and peace, told in the words and the songs of the men who lived it. Peter Rothstein’s salute to unsung heroes of The Great War, All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, returns to the Historic Asolo Theater after a sell-out run last season. This is the powerful true story of the unofficial ceasefires during World War I among British, French and German soldiers in the trenches along the Western Front around Christmas of 1914. Defying orders, the enemy combatants simply left the trenches for No Man’s Land and exchanged greetings, tobacco and chocolate, photographs… and songs. 

The sinking of the USS Arizona in the attack on Pearl Harbor that plunged America into World War II on December 7, 1941 is remembered by the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii. But the great ship was actually built and served in the United States Navy during World War I. The USS Arizona account on x.com recalls the ship’s WWI-era origins with period photographs, including one that shows the only known person who was present at the beginning and at the end of the USS Arizona.

The 106th New York City Veterans Day Parade that took place Tuesday, Nov. 11, was the nation’s largest tribute to American veterans and it was one of the coldest marches in recent years. The combination of freezing temperatures and bone-chilling winds was something of a challenge. Despite the cold, a Doughboy Foundation bugler sounded Taps at the Eternal Light Flagstaff monument flagpole in Madison Square Park before the beginning of the Parade. Read more about the 2025 parade, which heralded the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy, all founded in 1775.

Since the 1980’s Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools, which is located in Minnesota, has been bringing groups of 8th graders to Washington D.C. in the fall. For the past two years, the group has visited the National World War I Memorial at Pershing Park. The memorial has "become a must-stop destination for the Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools’ annual Washington D.C. trip."  Read more, and learn how, after their time at the Memorial, the 8th grade students leave D.C. "not just with souvenirs, but with powerful, personal connections to the brave Americans of World War I."

Sometimes in wartime, new units are formed. For example, in World War I, the US Army saw fit to post the four permanent African American regiments (9th, 10th, 24th and 25th) elsewhere, form two entirely new divisions (the 92nd and 93rd Infantry Divisions), and send them to Europe as part of the American Expeditionary Force. But in other cases, units with military heritages dating even before the Revolution, which had been reorganized as National Guard units, were sent overseas under Pershing. Learn how this was the case for the 1st Maryland Regiment, the “Maryland 400,” which had transitioned and played a role in World War I. It is the seventh oldest regiment in the U.S. Army (predating the U.S. Army by seven-and-a-half-months), and it is one of only 30 units in the Army and Army National Guard today that can claim colonial-era lineage.

When we think about the First World War, we often picture European battlefields and diplomatic tensions far from the United States. But the war years also triggered major changes at home, especially in cities that were already moving toward an industrial future. Places like San Francisco and Los Angeles didn’t see combat, but they felt the pressure of wartime production, labor shifts, and population growth. These changes didn’t fade after 1918. They shaped how both cities developed throughout the 20th century. Let's dive together into all the ways World War I reshaped industrial cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. 

Camp Greene in North Carolina rose from nothing in just 90 days during summer 1917. By December, this massive World War I training site held 60,000 young soldiers, nearly doubling Charlotte’s population. Then came the flu. It struck first on September 20, 1918, when two feverish men checked into the base hospital. Within days, the virus ripped through the camp, hitting Black troops hardest. Leaders locked down the facility on October 3, but death soon followed. By mid-October, coffins stacked floor to ceiling at the railroad station. Read more, and find out how, in all, nearly 300 soldiers died before the pandemic ended in early 1919.

Travel writer Dees Stribling remembers that "As a kid, that is as a kid in the late ’60s and early ’70s, I took an unusual interest in WWI. My grandfather, my mother’s father, had been with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in France, but it was more than that, since he was gone by the time I could remember, and I only heard bits and pieces about his service from family members who knew him. " Stribling's lifelong interest in World War I history was rewarded recently with a visit to the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City Missouri. Read his review from a recent visit to the museum, which he finds "first rate" and notes that "there is more than you can absorb in one go."

The Harlem Hellfighters fought for a country that didn’t fight for them. In 1917, these Black soldiers from the 369th Infantry were told “black is not a color in the rainbow” and banned from their own farewell parade. Yet once in France, they spent 191 days in non-stop combat, longer than any American unit. Under French command with French weapons, they earned fame when Henry Johnson fought off twelve Germans despite 21 wounds. The entire regiment won France’s Croix de Guerre medal for bravery. Back home in February 1919, they finally got their parade through Harlem’s streets. Learn how the legendary fighting force's story of courage still stands tall in monuments across Harlem today.

Army Veteran Travis Davis was inspired to write War on the Porch by his own personal experiences, both as a soldier, and as a kid sitting on his grandparents’ porch sharing stories. As he says, War on the Porch (his second novel about WWI) "isn’t just a war story; it’s a reflection on courage, trauma, and the power of storytelling to bridge generations."  Davis aims "to convey the true cost of the war, both during the fighting and upon the soldiers’ return home."  Read more about War on the Porch, which is "based loosely on the life of a real Doughboy, Thomas 'Tommy' Miller, a young American soldier and a farm boy from Kansas."

A refurbished memorial plaque honoring Mahwah’s favorite son and poet, Joyce Kilmer, was dedicated in ceremonies at Central Park in New York City on Veterans Day, Nov. 11. Kilmer, a native of New Brunswick, wrote “Trees” in 1913 while a resident of Mahwah. He lived there until his death on July 30, 1918, at the age of 31, during the Second Battle of the Marne while serving with New York’s 69th Infantry Regiment in France during World War I. Read more about Kilmer, and the project to refurbish his memorial, dedicated in 1931 at base of elm tree in Central Park, NYC. 

Jocke Hallberg, proprieter of the Swedes in the Great War website, reports that "I was contacted by a person named Håkan Bergquist from Malmö, Sweden, and he told me a very interesting story about his two ancestors who were soldiers in the American Expeditionary Force during the Great War. With some background information from Håkan I decided to write a small article about how it can be trying to find information about ancestors when initially not having all the present facts in hand." Find out more about the discovery process, and learn all the ways that "researching Swedes who emigrated to North America and became soldiers in the Great War can be quite challenging."

Warrior Canine Connection, which enlists recovering Warriors in a therapeutic mission of learning to train service dogs for their fellow Veteran, has welcomed Levy, named in honor of United States Army Signal Corps Operator First Class Hortense Levy Amram. On a trip to Europe in 1914, Levy and a female friend found themselves stranded in a small French seaport when the First World War erupted. After 18 days and much paperwork, Hortense and her travel companion reached Paris where they were able to begin their journey home. Her experiences in these early days of the war, watching the French women take on new roles as the men left to fight, made a mark on her. Learn more about Levy's decision to become a U.S. Army Signal Corps Telephone Operafor in WWI, and why her story makes her a wonderful namesake for a Warrior Canine Connection trainee.

In 1921, after WWI ended, Army Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell proved airplanes could sink battleships. Three years later, he predicted Japan would launch a surprise air attack on Pearl Harbor at dawn. Navy and Army brass dismissed him. They court-martialed him, forced him out, then spent the next two decades building more battleships. On Dec. 7, 1941, Mitchell’s predictions were proven right, but it was too late. Read more about how Mitchell, a veteran of the Spanish-American War and World War I, spent the late 1910s vocalizing how airpower could dominate the seas, and when he finally proved it, he was court-martialed.

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

Our Doughboy MIA this month is Sergeant Harry Convin Pruitt. Born September 17th, 1889 Harry Pruitt was a professional soldier, having enlisted in the regular US Army in March, 1913 at the age of 24. He served his first hitch at Columbus Barracks, Ohio, where he was assigned to Company E, 14th Infantry Regiment. He embarked for ‘Over There’ on April 7th, 1918 and in France was reassigned to Company I, 7th Infantry of the 3rd Division; soon to gain fame as the ‘Rock of the Marne’ division. With them he was killed July 15th, 1918 during the Second Battle of the Marne, helping the 3rd earn their title. Originally buried at Fossoy, Marne, his grave was never located after the war. Nothing else is known at this time.

Would you like to be involved with solving the case of Sergeant Harry Pruitt, 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.

2018 WWI Centennial Coins
from the U.S. Mint

The Doughboy Foundation Shop is featuring these beautifully boxed coins available for each military branch and offered at a special holiday price. Produced by the U.S. Mint to commemorate the Centennial of “The War That Changed the World”, each coin set makes an especially thoughtful gift that can be passed down from generation to generation. We have priced these at competitive rates. Have a look and add to your collection today. Please note: Supply is limited!

Proceeds from the sale of these items will help keep watch over the new 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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