World War I

94th Fighter Squadron

"Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared."Eddie Rickenbacker, Major, USAAS The 94th Fighter Squadron is a unit of the United States Air Force 1st Operations Group located at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. The 94th’s primary weapon system is the F-22 Raptor at this time. Throughout its full course and its precursor units, the 94th has been assigned to 70 different stations worldwide, and since its inception, has flown 43 different airframes. The 94th was officially the first American squadron representing American air forces to arrive on the WWI Western Front. The emblem design was adopted because it was symbolic of Uncle Sam throwing his hat into the ring—the Squadron insignia, Hat-in-the-Ring, suggested by Capt. Paul M. Walters, Med. Corps Surgeon was adopted, and Lieutenant Wentworth was assigned the task of drawing the proposed insignia. The squadron was previously using the 103's emblem. Just prior to the group’s deployment...

Sgt Alvin York – An Unlikely Hero

Profiles in Courage, World War I

Alvin Cullum York was one of the most decorated United States Army soldiers of World War I. He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nests, killing at least 25 enemy soldiers, and capturing 132 during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. He was also a conscientious objector. Alvin York Grows Up in Rural Tennessee Shaped by Hardship York was born on December 13, 1887 to William and Mary York of Pall Mall, Tennessee and raised in a two-room log cabin in a rural backwater in the northern section of Fentress County. He was the third oldest of a family of eleven children. Like many families in the county, the York family eked out a hardscrabble existence of subsistence farming supplemented by hunting. York's father, also acted as a part time blacksmith to provide some extra income for the family. In the wake of his father's death in 1911, York, as the eldest still living in the area, was forced to aid his mother in raising his younger siblings. To...

The Christmas Truce of 1914

Everything You Never Knew About the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

How Armistice Day Became Veterans Day

Military Myths and Legends, World War I

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the belligerent armies fighting World War I finally laid down their arms and stopped killing each other for the same pieces of blown-up mud they'd been fighting over since 1914. The Origins of Veterans Day The First World War killed as many as 22 million people worldwide and left some 23 million more wounded. An estimated 53,000 of those killed were American service members. Another 204,000 Americans would return home wounded. World War I ushered in a new age of warfare: industrial and mechanical innovations killed, wounded, and maimed troops on the battlefield in ways previously unimaginable. Tanks, machine guns, and poison gas forever scarred the men in the trenches in ways they could never forget - and Americans back home took notice. On the anniversary of the armistice, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first commemoration of Armistice Day, saying: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice...

John J. Kelly Received Two Medals of Honor for the Same Action

Profiles in Courage, World War I

On Oct. 3, 1918, the U.S. Army's 2nd Infantry Division, along with the French Fourth Army, advanced on Blanc Mont Ridge, the Imperial German machine gun death trap that the Entente forces had failed to capture over the past four years. The goal was to capture the ridge and push the Huns back over the Aisne River. It was a good plan, but like all World War I strategies, it was easier said than done. John Kelly Charged Through Fire to Make History The Americans stepped off toward the ridge in the wake of a rolling artillery barrage. As the shells chewed up the battlefield to soften up the defenses, a lone Marine could be seen running through the maelstrom of high explosives. It was Pvt. John J. Kelly, who was about to go down in history. The German commander at Blanc Mont Ridge knew he didn't have the manpower to hold the position indefinitely. His goal was to deter attacks by inflicting as many casualties as possible. This is why the French had failed in their previous attempts...

WW1 – When Johnny Comes Marching Home

Battlefield Chronicles, World War I

When war raged through Europe in the summer of 1914, the American public wanted nothing to do with it. Not our war, they said. President Woodrow Wilson agreed. He pledged neutrality for the United States.

Air Marshall William Bishop – WW1 Air Ace

Military Myths and Legends, World War I

Air Marshal William Avery "Billy" Bishop was a Canadian fighter pilot in WWI who crashed his plane during a practice run and was ordered to go back to flight school. He didn't. Instead, he went on to shoot down 72 enemy aircraft, making him a legend in his own time and earning him a Victoria Cross. William Bishop Faced Setbacks Before the Skies Bishop's military career didn't start off well. He joined the Royal Military College of Canada in 1911, was caught cheating, and had to start his first year all over again. In 1914, he joined the Mississauga Horse cavalry regiment, but couldn't join them overseas because he caught pneumonia. Once he recovered, they transferred him to the 7th Canadian Mounted Rifles where he proved to be a born sniper, able to take out targets others could barely see. He finally boarded a ship for England on June 6, 1915 as part of a convoy that was attacked by German U-boats. Three hundred Canadians died in that attack, but Bishop's vessel was untouched. The...

Sgt Henry Johnson, U.S. Army (1918-1919) – America’s First World War Hero

Profiles in Courage, World War I

Henry Johnson was a World War I soldier who singlehandedly beat back a German assault while critically wounded. He was a great American hero and received the highest military honor of two different countries. One of those countries, however, his very own, didn't bestow that medal until nearly 100 years after his service in WWI. The honor this man deserved was not awarded by the U.S. government upon his return home, because he was black. But that racism was eventually overcome, if only by the undeniable memory of his heroism. Henry Johnson Defied Segregation to Serve In 1917, a young Henry Johnson was working as a Red Cap porter at an Albany, New York train station joined the 15th New York National Guard Regiment. Due to U.S. segregation policies, it was an all-black regiment. Due to be shipped out to France as the U.S. declared war on Germany and its allies, the 15th New York was renamed the 369th Infantry Regiment and placed within the American Expeditionary Force under General John...

Heroines Under Fire

Profiles in Courage, World War I

On July 29, 1918, field nurse Linnie Leckrone jumped on a truck headed for the front as part of Gas and Shock Team 134 in the battle of Chateau-Thierry northeast of Paris during the Great War. As German artillery rained down, she tended the wounded. For her “conspicuous gallantry in action,” Leckrone was awarded what was then called the Citation Star in a certificate signed by Gen. John (Black Jack) Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force.

The Lost Battalion

Military Myths and Legends, World War I

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was the final push of World War I on the Western Front, lasting from Sept. 28, 1918, until the end of the war, Nov. 11, 1918. The allied forces of Britain, France, and the United States advanced all along the front, making the largest offensive in U.S. military history, involving more than 1.2 million troops. It was also the deadliest, inflicting 350,000 casualties in less than seven weeks. The allies made relatively major gains, considering the course of the war until that point, but it was not without errors – and one of those errors meant the loss of a battalion-sized force. The Meuse-Argonne Offensive: Advance into Argonne Forest The men of that battalion came from the 77th Division, made up mostly of men from New York City. During the allied push, they fought their way into the dense Argonne Forest, where a counterattack soon left them surrounded and cut off from friendly lines. Thinking the unit had been lost, allied artillery shelled their position...

SgtMaj Daniel J. Daly, U.S. Marine Corps (1899–1929)

Profiles in Courage, World War I

Only two Marines have received the Medal of Honor for two separate actions: Maj. Gen Smedley Butler and SgtMaj. Daniel J. Daly. And you know it has to mean something when Butler called Daly "the fightingest Marine I ever knew." SgtMaj Daniel J. Daly and the Boxer Rebellion Daly served in the Marine Corps for 30 years, seeing every major Marine Corps campaign between 1899 and 1929. Growing up in New York City as a slender youth, he had to be tough; he even became a semi-pro boxer before joining the Marines at age 25. His first assignment took him halfway around the world aboard the USS Newark, then a cruiser assigned to the U.S. Asiatic Fleet – and it was about to take him to his first Medal of Honor action. Not long after Daly joined up, China was in upheaval. Anti-foreigner and anti-Christian sentiment boiled over into open rebellion against outsiders interfering with life in China. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese peasants, known as Boxers, rose up and began murdering missionaries,...

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World War I

94th Fighter Squadron

Sgt Alvin York – An Unlikely Hero

The Christmas Truce of 1914

Everything You Never Knew About the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

How Armistice Day Became Veterans Day

John J. Kelly Received Two Medals of Honor for the Same Action

WW1 – When Johnny Comes Marching Home

Air Marshall William Bishop – WW1 Air Ace

Sgt Henry Johnson, U.S. Army (1918-1919) – America’s First World War Hero

Heroines Under Fire

The Lost Battalion

SgtMaj Daniel J. Daly, U.S. Marine Corps (1899–1929)

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