JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2315
100,000 DOUGHBOYS TO JOIN THE FIGHT IN FRANCE BY YEAR'S END
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) One hundred years today, May 20, 1917, the United States government announced that 100,000 soldiers would be sent to France by the end of the year. Regular troops under Major General John J. Pershing were scheduled to be the first in action. They were likely to be followed by a second division.
According to Brigadier General William A. Mann of the Bureau of Militia Affairs*, 50,000 to 75,000 national guardsmen would join the regular troops in September. They would receive an intensive two months training. Draftees, however, would require much more training before they could be expected to fight.
*Bureau of Militia Affairs was created in 1908 five years after the National Guard Bureau became part of the US Army & USAF. By the National Defense Act of 1916, the BMA became the Militia Bureau of the War Department. This act transformed the militia from individual states into a reserve component of the US Army.
SOURCE
"100,000 To France In 1917, First Militia To Reach Front Early in Fall", by Arthur Sears Henning, The Chicago Daily Tribune, May 21, 1917.
Flag of the National Guard Bureau
US Army Institute of Heraldy (2015)
100,000 DOUGHBOYS TO JOIN THE FIGHT IN FRANCE BY YEAR'S END
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) One hundred years today, May 20, 1917, the United States government announced that 100,000 soldiers would be sent to France by the end of the year. Regular troops under Major General John J. Pershing were scheduled to be the first in action. They were likely to be followed by a second division.
According to Brigadier General William A. Mann of the Bureau of Militia Affairs*, 50,000 to 75,000 national guardsmen would join the regular troops in September. They would receive an intensive two months training. Draftees, however, would require much more training before they could be expected to fight.
*Bureau of Militia Affairs was created in 1908 five years after the National Guard Bureau became part of the US Army & USAF. By the National Defense Act of 1916, the BMA became the Militia Bureau of the War Department. This act transformed the militia from individual states into a reserve component of the US Army.
SOURCE
"100,000 To France In 1917, First Militia To Reach Front Early in Fall", by Arthur Sears Henning, The Chicago Daily Tribune, May 21, 1917.
Flag of the National Guard Bureau
US Army Institute of Heraldy (2015)
