Good morning. For those of you that are new to the occasion, welcome to the 22nd writers symposium. Its one continuous century of hostility. We call this years installment when the war lost the war the centennial legacy of world war i. To establish the theme and suggest a direction. This morning it is my particular pleasure to introduce colonel robert. Having written extensively in the four centigrade for. Currently, he is the acting secretary of the Battle Monuments Commission and former director of the army center of military history. His special interest is suggested by the military insignia especially as worn by the officers and men of the American Expeditionary force and the africanamerican soldier. Received the Army Historical foundation for excellence in writing. A particular note to officers on active duty is his Army Officers guide which was continued to edit. Among the favorite hobbies is leaving the battlefield historical sites in the United States and europe. This morning he will speak to us on the american extraordinary force in france. On behalf of both the symposium at the university, we welcome the kernel. [applause] thanks for the kind introducti introduction. I feel very connected to this place because on three separate occasions i worked for general sullivan so i have to hear about it quite a bit. And much like those now i often heard about it in very odd hours of the night were the Early Morning so it is a pleasure to be here and i am very excited to be able to talk to you a little. And i did use the word extraordinary for a specific reason. I was talking im going to walk to the podium. Im always asked and im sure jennifer has heard this as well like are you interested in world war i. People ask me about it all the time. What would a person like you get involved in world war i for. The matter of the truth is it comes down to the reason i love being here today with young students. Its because i want you to take a look at this photograph. It was taken in washington, d. C. Union station and was taken in the end of the war. You see in the photograph another is beaming because her son is back from the war. He is holding a baby and you see the one that is returning. This picture to me totally explains why world war i is important to the nation and everybody en route. So this is my Centennial Commission pitch. Thats one is probably the child of a Civil War Veteran would be my feeling. And that Soldier Holding the baby, that baby by the way is a member of the greatest generation. That soldier was born in an age of horse and wagons. He probably hadnt traveled before he went overseas with the American Expeditionary forces. He probably had traveled much out of the county that he was born. Even though hes coming into Union Station in washington at this point. And that person that was born in the age of horse and wagon that could speak to a Civil War Veteran is probably going to pass away in the age of jet travel. So think about that for a minute. He passed away in this decade in the last known world war i veteran. Think about the world that person grew up in and how america changed in that persons life in so many ways. This isnt really the pitch of my talk i want you to think about this in our daily lives. When we entered world war i, we thought women were too fragile to be in combat, let alone an industry at home in any way. It woulwhat would happen if a wn would have a nervous issue that we put her in in a factory or if we put her in a situation she was near. We thought about africanamericans. Okay. 300 some odd years of slavery. How can we count on this person to fight for america a person that has been told their whole life what to do. They cant think for themselves. What if they gebut if they get n that leaders are dead. Hyphenated americans. Some 20 of the forces are immigrants. What if we put these people in line. Will they be loyal to america or germany . Will they be loyal to fighting for the british . Thankfully, everyone of these prejudices was smashed by the war. Certainly it would be by civil rights, but many of them will be in labor positions there but with themselves wonderfully. When you take 2 million some odd people in the Armed Services is about 4 million people, but we get about 2 million over there when you account the American Red Cross and other volunteer organizations. When you take 2 million some odd people and you pluck them from that county as i love to say. You put them on a train and a pass from new york and paris and london and they come back, you forever alter the fabric of society. And i think that is why these people were important. When you stick your toe into the world stage, there isnt any going back. You can have the isolationist movement and all these other things but the truth of the matter is there is no going back once we get in the war. These are the people that will open in the american century, but the greatest generation and to set up the world we live. If you dont believe it is important after that i dont even want to talk to you anymore. But you are going to have to stay. So that is my opener on this and i want to talk about how the American Expeditionary force shaped america by the way it dealt the world we live. Anyone that is going to be associated with the army come everything you know comes out of this. We had a wonderful discussion about this with question and answers if we have them. This is my quick refresher for the non world war i table in the room. So this is one of my National Park service maps. This is what the world looks like right before we entered now coming in on the side of the allies. So you have these blocs of nations whats going over there before we get there know the plan to very quickly resolve world war i and when the plan fails, the british accent Expeditionary Force stabilizes so that is all quiet on the western front period. The Eastern Front kind of going towards germanys favor during the war. We now go to the soft underbelly of europe if he will and in this particular case that doesnt work out we are done and proved to be very costly but fight the french and british and meanwhile back on the United States is mexico. I will tell you in the raids occurred on the mexican border, the u. S. Intelligence services are convinced that the germans have their hand in long before the Zimmerman Telegram of years, so it is an interesting thing because number one, talking about prejudice before the war, it is believed in the Intelligence Services mexicans cant pull anything off on the border. They need some supervision and they are behind everything going on down there so it is a sensation with what is going on in mexico. Meanwhile, by 17 the french are on a breaking point and that is a moment to talk about. So the germans realize right before we come to the war that the United States is probably leaning on coming in. A lot of people will say about world war i the United States did do much. They were my kind of involved in the last months of the war. Essentially 47 days of combat depending on the big flush and how you are counting. But america doesnt do much. That isnt totally true. You will often find the cat in the field of an 18 pounder because of the number of shells that are fired. I will tell you i would give you even odds when you pick one of the mathem out and look at it is either stamped or made in the u. S. Now that was probably fired in july of 1960. And we didnt have any that far north as we have been slightly south around their. But no american fired background, so that this positive that america is supplying the allies and she is leaning towards that way. So there is a gamble that needs to be taken which is you can either cut the allies supply line and okay, my slides dont want to cooperate. You can either cut the allied supply lines i have a wonderful picture of the ship sinking. I need help. They cut the supply lines and press the United States will enter the war in favor of the allies or you can do nothing. So, thank you. I love that National Archive shot. This is the kind of thing that invokes a lot of feeling in the United States and a maritime nation. Youve got the guy about to jump off the ship. Theres a famous poster and was the first thing i thought when the president gave his speech. Its a very famous poster of a woman sinking into the atlantic. She has in her arms a little beautiful baby and of course thats played on the american consciousness. We dont enter the war because the lusitania through a lot of political maneuvering. But the truth of the matter is peace posters in the book he wrote so much passion that poster is one of the ones that helped change americas view of how the world was coming. But if you think about it if you were germany willing to remove unrestricted warfare you got a reason and the reason is if the United States does come into the war if we declare the war you have to have opportunity. You dont just because you know your sub captains were mad they are not doing anything. Youre going to do it because the risk gives you reward. The risk and reward is you can conquer on the western front you can bring the french and british to the table on the western front for the United States can mobilize. They decided that they can do that and of course it is a bad decision. But i like to say that a lot of this comes from the fact we will talk about it in a minute a lot of this comes from the fact that 1918, the spring of 1918 when the germans think the United States will start getting troops over there as a moment of opportunity not to be a complete on the war, so its not over and this is another point of why its important. Lets talk about that. Some oso, the first question whu declare war in april, 1917, the first question is what do you need. So what do you have is the first thing that we come to and right now, 100 years ago there were military officers on a ship headed over to france to look at what was going on. We had people over there before but now they are looking at it seriously and you have to make a couple of assumptions. I am often accused of hating the battle in france and ahead of myself but i have to give this disclaimer. I hate the battle because the marines got credit for it and i think it sends that joined us back 100 years because they were so angry that the Single Service got credit and he took some pretty drastic actions like removing the marine corps officers commanding the Army Formations which was already happening. Its these forces that include everybody. A point that was made, this is a modern war and we have a phrase in the military i used to travel up in the Secretaries Office to detail. This is an important thing to bear in mind. How many people do you need behind that person to supply. So if you look at the spanishamerican war its about 1for. So for every person shooting at a german in those days you have for people doing associated labor tests. Take a guess. Youre close. It depends how you calculate it. That looks haphazard but if you think about it we are not fighting in the United States, so the only thing that is american has to be loaded and shipped usually new york and it has to be put in one of them then you have to put it on the rail and then sent to the front. So before you pick the first one up in the hospital or Something Like that. That creates a brandnew Organization Called the s. O. S. A service of supply. There is no such thing in military history. There are the outfits in the beginning but not to this extent. By the way, this assumes that they do word over which they dont. It assumes they work and run on time as we like to say a. They decided by the end they are not going to work out that way. I just put it up for you in round numbers theres 300,000 people hanging around at the National Guard or the u. S. Army when we declare war so you have a huge dose of air and if you look at the 300,000 its decided on. Then its decided and i find this interesting and this is one of the points i like to make for the future Army Officers they take the army and felt the Current Force Structure so there isnt one single Army Division on the eve of world war i. Arrange them for the border incursion but they set up just like this the regular Army Division. What does that mean they are not really regular Army Divisions. We will talk very quickly about the Selective Service but they are going to be mostly the cadre of one through 20 will be regular army people sergeant for 20 to 25 years and give the good news hes quick to be a lieutenant. When we do the world war i genealogy, people can figure this out. So it goes from corporal to Sergeant Major overnight. Thats what is happening. The National Guard is in some ways a little easier. It works in this way. There are those that have been around some of them are quite old. What they do is take the National Guard units and pull them regionally into divisions and then they plan a regular army officer at the top of thate decision. But we give you the local. Its created from connecticut, vermont, maine, new hampshire, rhode island. He becomes very cozy with the congressional publications appear so he is very well thought of. They redesignate the outfits, but they are very much linked to the National Guard heritage. Again you can supplement them with draftees and people to volunteer but the core of the National Guard outfit are people whove been serving in the state coalitions. In the 76 to 99 rain range, you have the new program at fort Benjamin Harrison will produce officers quickly and they will then align to the training cor corps. So now again the Senior Officers and regular officers of the National Army are drafting regionally arranged in a weird set of situations coming up so it comes from the area around philadelphia, pennsylvania, new york but it varies. Its hard for me to understand. Okay, so then of course if you were here this morning, this was taken apart wonderfully and i do want to say for those addicted to the morning lecture, the point was made very well the problem is we are not sure you can get the number of people you need to enlist for a lot of Different Reasons and the most compelling is the situation here in the United States that maybe we shouldnt be in this war at all to begin with. The interesting thing about the Selective Service draft is that it is as close to universal as it ever will be for this to go. The bottom line is africanamerican need to register and they can be drafted which generates this entire conversation about who needs to be in the war. This is a british poster because i couldnt find the american one but one of the ways to get people to do this is to shame them. What did you do in war, i didnt do anything in the great war because i was a coward, i wasnt going to kill myself. So they tried all kinds of ways to make sure that it didnt work and shaming people, they will run around with you when you need to get in the army because it is cool to be in the army and that is what people like. Then of course big brother is always watching if you dont get in the army. 24 million men ultimately register so that is in that little age group and i want to show you world war ii. Its interesting that as early as world war i, the question asked what is the number of people you can put in uniform before you change the nature of society so in other words, im glad think about this stuff. If we put anybody on a certain age group if we put them all in uniform, what is the magic breaking point before you changed the fabric. Its simply a person to the population its decided 10 is the breaking point number. If we took 10 of the people in this room in a small community, almost everybody is going to be related to something. In comparison that is a big percentage of the population. In world war i we are pretty safe, so that is okay. I showed this picture for a number of reasons and they play this whole idea of lafayette. We are paying back the debt to france that we had. This is very much in the mind of the french. When we talked about the centennial. The other thing they cared about, i hate to use the word reenactment, but the commemoration at the tomb of lafayette in paris. What they said to me was well educated people that live in the United States that you think there could the appetites and a similar ceremony in the town in virginia, and i thought i was for you what, we are just outclassed by these guys because how many would be able to make that connection between lafayette coming to town and world war i and it was right up there. They talk about we should do something in the town, we should do something at crescendo and that whole crowd. That is uppermost in their mind.