Okay, bear with me, I'm about to get super sentimental about doughboys, Y-girls, Red Cross workers, Hello Girls, and all those of that incredible generation who answered the call. These amazing men and women - ordinary kids, so many of them - who did extraordinary things
Sure, we can look at stats: how the US Army surged from just over 200,000 regulars and Guardsmen in 1917 to nearly 4 million in a year and a half. How women volunteered in numbers never seen before in this nation.
But that doesn't show the humanity of these people
But that doesn't show the humanity of these people
Doughboys are one of the funniest, most sardonic groups in US Army history. Engaged in one of the deadliest wars in human history, they spent their spare hours teasing each other, playing pranks on each other, and just, well, being goofs
You can almost hear the laughter in this
You can almost hear the laughter in this
These young women are experiencing life on their own for the first time, serving in the Army. I kind of think they're enjoying it.
Want to know of what stuff these women are made of?
The toughest.
These women manning a "soup gun" don't even flinch when that round goes off nearby. Doesn't even break their stride.
The toughest.
These women manning a "soup gun" don't even flinch when that round goes off nearby. Doesn't even break their stride.
In the face of horrors, death, their own wounds...they laugh. An indomitable spirit
Even burrowed into the earth like so many moles, they pause to laugh at their situation when the camera comes by
No teeth, no problem. Living in the rubble of bombed out towns, they find ways to smile. To capture brief moments of joy
When the US Army called for the best telephone operators in the nation to handle the nerve-wracking job of routing strategic communication for the AEF, they got the very best: the "Hello Girls." They kept the communications lines open, in several languages
When you get something other than bully beef for the first time in weeks
The exhaustion of the front lines. Living in abris - dugouts - constantly on edge for the whine of a 77 or the rattle of a "trash can" coming over, or the wail of a gas alarm
Sure, you can tell women that they can't be tankers
Good luck stopping them, as this Y-Girl demonstrates with a Renault FT-17
Good luck stopping them, as this Y-Girl demonstrates with a Renault FT-17
Women can't fly? This young woman would beg to differ. How she would smile, knowing how many amazing women are fighter pilots, bombers, and the like, today
Try telling the 15th New York - Harlem's Rattlers - that they can't fight. Just try telling them that. As the 369th Infantry, the Hellfighters will accrue a combat record second to none
The 93rd Division will go into line with the French, cast-off by the AEF - the French don't care. They only see fierce fighters.
Doughboys examining a 37mm shell for the one-pounder guns in headquarters company. These are fighting men. Fighting for freedoms these men do not themselves enjoy back home.
The American soldier advancing. Tired. Worn out from days of campaigning. Yet still offering the jokes, the songs, from the Marne to the Meuse
When wounded, the gentle relief. The quiet joy. Even in great pain.
The quiet eloquence of death, in a mixed cemetery of allied graves
Were they perfect? God no. Were they all heroes? Of course not. But the generation carried on a quiet humor throughout that just appeals to me. Like holding this mock burial of the last German shell
103 years ago today. An artillery battery after the last shot of the war at 11 AM. In just years, this generation will go silent. The writing will stop. Interviews will be few. No one cared to ask, they didn't care to talk. Raucous in war, quiet in peace.
We remember them.
We remember them.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
