WW1CC intern Nicole Renna writes this week about Vashti Bartlett, a Maryland native who was a Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School for Nurses 1906 graduate, and proudly served the Allied forces as a nurse in World War I, both as a Red Cross nurse and a member of the Army Nurse Corps. Read more about her proud service to the nation here.

Elsewhere, Janice Brown on the Cow Hampshire web site notes that "When we think of World War I, most of us picture the men in military uniform readying for battle. Women played as great a part in everything. Some women served as yeowomen, nurses, telephone operators and others who were often at the battlefield and subject to the same grave dangers of bombs, gas and disease. The women left behind experienced great hardships, but also it was a door of opportunity for them."  Read more about the Women's History Month program on Brown's New Hampshire History Blog.

On the National Council for the Social Studies socialstudies.org web site, Carl and Dorothy Schneider write that "American women experienced this 'Great War' differently than any previous war. For the first time, the Army and Navy nurse corps were activated. It was the first American war in which no woman enlisted as a foot soldier disguised as a man, for it introduced thorough physical examinations. Yet it was the first war in which women officially and openly served in the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Army Signal Corps. For the first time in the history of the world, 25,000 women, 15,000 of them civilians, crossed a hostile ocean to succor war's victims-many of them long before the United States entered the war. Women struck out on their own like entrepreneurs, finding their own ways to help people and seeking the money and capital to accomplish their goals." Read the entire in-depth essay about American women in WWI here.

Two hundred twenty-three women served as telephone operators in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War I. These were the first women to serve as soldiers in the U.S. Army, specifically in non-nursing roles. Eric Saul, veteran Historian and Museum Director, writes about the extensive J'Ecoute exhibition he mounted decades ago at the U.S. Army's  Presidio Museum in California, honoring and recognizing the "Hello Girls" and awarding some of the still-living veterans their long-awaited World War I Victory Medals. Read more about the J'Ecoute exhibition and the presentation ceremonies for the medals here.

The ferocious flu outbreak that circumnavigated the globe in 1918 has eerie parallels to the epidemic sweeping across the United States now, but medical and history experts said despite each arriving 18 years into new centuries, the two influenzas differ significantly. World War I Centennial Commission Commissioner Libby O’Connell was one of several experts who spoke at a news briefing last week at the Museum of American Armor in Old Bethpage, NY. Read more on the experts' take the 1918 pandemic, the worst flu outbreak in history, and the current flu strain gripping the world.

In 1918 an eruption of anti-German hysteria virtually wiped out German culture in the US, shaking an increasingly divided country as it drifted into the war in Europe. The giant German ethnic minority that had long been such an important, influential, and integral pillar of fin-de-siècle society came under sudden attack from jingoistic Americans determined to do their part “over here” in the fight “over there” against Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany. Author Erik Kirschbaum shares his thoughts from Berlin about how "when the war ended there was little left of the German-American culture."  Elsewhere, Jenni Salamon of the Ohio History Connection writes about how Ohio, where the German-American immigrant population was over 200,000 by 1900, and with even more Ohioans claiming German ancestry, was particularly vulnerable to anti-German sentiment.

During the centennial of the end of World War I, the District of Columbia National Guard will host a series of special activities, programs, and events to commemorate the end to the first war. Approximately 400,000 National Guard Soldiers served in the Great War, among them were 2,000 Guardsmen from the District of Columbia. “As we mark 100 years of the end of World War I, we reflect back on the many contribution and sacrifices made by the Soldiers of the District of Columbia National Guard; citizen-Soldiers who answered the call to protect the Capital and defend the nation in time of great need,” said Brig. Gen. William J. Walker, acting commanding general, District of Columbia National Guard. Read more about the District of Columbia National Guard’s centennial commemoration activities here.

The WW1 Centennial News Podcast is about WW1 THEN: 100 years ago this week, and it's about WW1 NOW: News and updates about the centennial and the commemoration. 

Available on our web site, iTunes, Google Play, and TuneIn.

Episode #61
Highlights: Healers of WW1

 March Preview - Roundtable with Dr. Edward Lengel, Katherine Akey & Theo mayer | @02:15

 Spoils of War from Russia - Mike Shuster | @13:10

 Medicine in WW1 - Charles Van Way, George Thompson & Sanders Marble | @18:30

 New VSO WW1 support site @ ww1cc.org/veteran | @26:00

 African American nurses in WW1 - Dr. Marjorie DesRosier | @27:35

 100C/100M project from Raymond WA - Gordon Aleshire | @33:25

 Women Physicians in WW1 - Eliza Chin, Keri Kukral & Mollie Marr | @36:50

 Speaking WW1 - “Archie” | @43:10

 WW1 War Tech - The Browning Machine Gun | @45:05

 WWrite Blog on Brest-Litovsk Treaty | @47:10

 American War Artist and his curator - Katherine Akey | @48:10

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

Monday's MIA this week is Battalion Sergeant-Major George P. Storm. Born in September 1879, George Storm enlisted at Allentown, Pennsylvania on December 6, 1898, served through several enlistment periods and was a professional soldier. In August, 1917, he was assigned to the 16th Infantry and with them went to France. On 4 October, 1918, during the Meuse-Argonne campaign, when his battalion had made an advance outside Exermont, Sergeant-Major Storm stayed behind to wrap up activities at the battalion’s old post of command. Once his duties were complete there, he set out through violent shellfire to the new PC position. However, shortly after setting out from the old PC, he was killed by shellfire. At the time of his death, he was just two months from retirement.  Buried by the unit chaplain in a short stretch of trench near where he died, his grave had been well marked and noted at headquarters. However, when GRS searched for the grave location post war they were unable to locate it. Despite a second search, Sergeant-Major Storm remains missing to this day. In 2015, Mr. Jay Perkins of the 1st Division Museum at Wheaton, Illinois brought the case to Doughboy MIA. Since then we have dug into the case extensively and believe that the recovery of Battalion-Sergeant Major Storm’s remains are entirely possible using today's technology, and plans are in the works to attempt a retrieval.

Help us with this case – give ‘Ten for Them’. For just $10.00 you can have a hand in helping solve this and other cases.  Give 'Ten For Them' to Doughboy MIA and help us make a full accounting of the 4,423 American service personnel still listed as missing in action from WW1. Make your tax deductible donation now, with our thanks.

Charm Pendant
$9.95

The question came up: "For Women's history month, do we have any commemorative items for them?". Well heck yea!.  

Proudly wearing the WWI 100 Years charm pendant is a fantastic conversation starter about WW1.

The satin nickel charm, worn on a necklace or bracelet, is a simple, yet meaningful, way to display your pride and remember those who sacrificed throughout our nation’s great history.

NOTE: This is the charm only. The necklace or bracelet is not included.

This and many other items are available as Official Merchandise of the United States World War One Centennial.

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