Day 4 Part 1: Why we have forgotten World War I

Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in France is the final resting place of 6,012 Americans from World War I.

1615 Local Time

Reims, France

World War I. The Great War. The War to End All Wars. It has many names. But for some reason it is largely forgotten in contemporary history. There is a common theme to go from the American Civil War of the 1860's straight to World War II from 1939-1945. Basically we go from Gettysburg to Pearl Harbor, cutting out major world events and catastrophe in the 2nd decade of the 20th century.

The world of historians and war researches are currently recognizing the 100th anniversary of WWI. For them this is significant. But it seems to be lost on the American public. Perhaps there were not enough famous names that came out of the war. The Civil War had Lincoln, Lee, Grant, etc. World War II had Roosevelt, Patton, Eisenhower, etc. World War I has what...Pershing? I know who that is, but does the average American? I could name a dozen more, but I doubt many others can? I can't tell you the last World War I movie that became a hit. Lawrence of Arabia (not even an American story) in 1962, maybe? 

I think the attraction to WWII is the fact that some of the most famous battles like Normandy and Bulge were made into very epic movies in recent years (thanks Tom Hanks). We have basically learned about that war through watching a movie then getting curious just long enough to learn the story behind it.

However the fact that WWI was a war of production and attrition, it does not make for a great screenplay. I'm not implying that there are not awesome stories to be told--as I have learned this week, there are tons of them. But they are not attractive enough to catch the American imagination.

Fun Fact: The American Battle Monuments Commission changed the type of
marble used for grave markers after World War I. Why? The old marble has too
much grain. The military is all about uniformity. The World War II graves have
a more uniformly white marble which has better contrast with the green grass.

From a numbers standpoint, it is astounding. The United States did not ease itself into the war. It jumped right in at full speed. Considering that the world had already been at war for 3 years when the Yanks arrived, the fact that we took heavy casualties quickly is not surprising. We had to learn how to fight. The United States was very combat inexperienced. The USA average 280 deaths per day, totaling more than 116,000 deaths in just about a year of fighting. This should get your attention. More than 1/4 of these war dead are buried in American cemeteries in Europe. There are about 4 million Americans living abroad in Europe, not counting nearly a half million Americans working for the Department of Defense and stationed in Europe. Yet today I visited one of the World War I cemeteries and I was the first person to sign the visitor registry in 3 days. The previous three entries were from people from other countries (Australia, France, England). It was seven days, an entire week since another American visited this cemetery. That is shameful to me.

Grave of PVT Blackwell at Somme
American Cemetery in France.

As time passes and memories fade, our appreciation of the sacrifices of those killed in WWI should not cease. At WWII cemeteries this week I have seen hundreds of graves with flowers and personal notes remembering the fallen. It is understandable because those fallen are possibly connected with those living today. At the WWI cemeteries I have seen less than 10 with personal recognition. This saddens me.

I believe that we owe a debt of gratitude to anyone that has died in battle for the United States. Time should not impact this and we owe it to them to continue to educate ourselves on the lessons learned from their sacrifices.

Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Belleau, France.