If You Ever Go to France

[FirefightnRick]

Good stuff CMJ.

Rick

[CMJ]

http://www.ww1-centennial.org/journey-to-romagne/

[FirefightnRick]

New York has cancelled Times Square New Year ball drop as special war measure- moment of silence will mark midnight. pic.twitter.com/ncM7RoUKpZ

— WW2 Tweets from 1943 (@RealTimeWWII)

January 1, 2015

A solemn photo.

Rick

[CMJ]

There are thousands of WWI memorials across the USA and many are incredibly impressive like the Indiana War Memorial district. But there's only four large scale ones that I know of that pay tribute to the entire US cause (there is a plan in place to build and dedicate a National WWI Memorial in DC by 11/11/18 - fingers crossed). The Pershing/AEF Memorial in DC (which also talks about the Navy on the information slabs), The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Virginia, Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. I wrote this piece for the WWI blog Roads to the Great War (which is run by a guy out of San Francisco who has about five WWI related websites, a magazine, and runs tour groups....he's basically Mr. WWI in the USA) about arguably the most well known US World War Memorial...which no one knows is a WWI memorial.

http://roadstothegreatwar-ww1.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-los-angeles-memorial-coliseum.html

Edited April 4, 2015 by CMJ

[MeanGreenTexan]

There are thousands of WWI memorials across the USA and many are incredibly impressive like the Indiana War Memorial district. But there's only four large scale ones that I know of that pay tribute to the entire US cause (there is a plan in place to build and dedicate a National WWI Memorial in DC by 11/11/18 - fingers crossed). The Pershing/AEF Memorial in DC (which also talks about the Navy on the information slabs), The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Virginia, Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. I wrote this piece for the WWI blog Roads to the Great War (which is run by a guy out of San Francisco who has about five WWI related websites, a magazine, and runs tour groups....he's basically Mr. WWI in the USA) about arguably the most well known US World War Memorial...which no one knows is a WWI memorial.

http://roadstothegreatwar-ww1.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-los-angeles-memorial-coliseum.html

I'm pretty sure there already is a WWI monument in DC. I seen it with my own eyes!

[CMJ]

I'm pretty sure there already is a WWI monument in DC. I seen it with my own eyes!

It's one for the city. It's not national, trust me.

http://dc.about.com/od/monuments/a/DCWarMemorial.htm

Or you could think of the one for General Pershing...which is largely a National Memorial as well since it mentions most of the important battles we participated in. Pershing Park (where this is) is where the planned National WWI memorial is supposed to go.

http://www.dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0000642.htm

Edited April 4, 2015 by CMJ

[MeanGreenTexan]

It's one for the city. It's not national, trust me.

http://dc.about.com/od/monuments/a/DCWarMemorial.htm

Or you could think of the one for General Pershing...which is largely a National Memorial as well since it mentions most of the important battles we participated in. Pershing Park (where this is) is where the planned National WWI memorial is planned to go.

http://www.dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0000642.htm

Ah! Learn something new everyday. That's the one I was talking about (you're first link). Thanks for the education CMJ.

[CMJ]

There's a lot in the works nationally to roll out over the next few years.  I was pretty surprised when the Commission folks in Washington DC had one of their interns call me up on the proposed Pershing Square redevelopment in LA.  That dovetailed into over an hour of me pontificating about WWI, Los Angeles, Memorials, and God knows what else.  Then, the commission put up this profile piece on me last night.  I had no clue I was gonna be spotlighted like this.  They probably didn't either till I couldn't stop talking.

 

What's sad is, poor Mike (the intern who had to make sense of me) had to leave out a ton more.  I think at one point or another I mentioned over 20 WWI memorials in Southern California -- he only refers to a couple.  :)

 

 

http://ww1cc.org/courtland-jindra-volunteer-spotlight.html

[Army of Dad]

That's pretty sweet. Thanks for doing (more than) your part to help keep the memories of those vets alive.

[CMJ]

I feel like I am working way harder at this stuff than I have at any actual job I've ever held, AND I'm not getting paid for any of it.  Obviously I am a moron.  LOL

 

 

[CMJ]

Ninety seven years ago today the largest, deadliest battle in US history was fought. Shockingly (and sadly) it is all but forgotten. At the end of September, 1918 - the Allies had Germany on the run. After weathering the early spring offensives, Americans joined the fray in force and tipped the scales to the Entente. The overall commander of the Allied forces in France, Field Marshal Foch directed a three pronged attack with the slim hope of forcing an end to the war before the year was out -- but realistically trying to set up a favorable position in which to invade Germany in 1919.

The US had the toughest nut to crack on the front in the front, with the least experienced army. However, General Pershing was determined that his boys would do the trick. What followed was as brutal a battle as could be imagined, with both Americans and Germans experiencing extremely heavy losses for weeks on end. With its line crumbling in three places, Germany sued for peace.

In his postwar memoirs German Field Marshal Hindenburg said that, along with the British blockade, the US's blow in the Argonne decided the war and if not for the Americans it would have continued to have been a stalemate. Gettysburg might be more important to our history as a country, Normandy might be more famous, Iwo Jima more iconic, but no victory was more impressive than a army full of half trained draftees to defeat the greatest field army, on the most defensible terrain, in Europe.