World War I

World War I. . , Outbreak of the Great War , Tensions had been simmering in Europe for decades prior to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire by a Serbian nationalist in June 1914. The ensuing Austro-Hungarian attack on Serbia escalated into a world-wide conflict now known as World War I (world war one). Although President Woodrow Wilson declared the U.S. to be a neutral country, America gave financial support to and continued commerce with France and Great Britain. This caused Germany to conduct unrestricted submarine warfare against American shipping, which led to Congress to declare war on Germany in April 1917., At the outbreak of world war one, Arlington, still known as Alexandria County, was a quiet, largely rural area with a scattered population of about 12,000. In 1910, the County's population was 59.5% white, 25.9% African American, and 14.7% foreign born. Although legally separated from the City of Alexandria in 1870, Alexandria County did not change its name until 1920. Arlington already played a significant role in national military history as the home of Fort Myer (known as Fort Whipple until 1881), Arlington National Cemetery, and "The Three Sisters" naval radio towers., Arlington During the War , When President Wilson signed the Selective Service Act of 1917 to increase the size of the U.S. military, 2,488 Arlingtonians responded to the call. They were among four million Americans who mobilized for the war effort. The military required conscription of all men regardless of race, but segregation permeated both civilian life and military ranks. Two divisions of African American draftees served in combat units, but most were relegated to labor units and menial work. Labor shortages created new opportunities for women, and African Americans to engage in jobs that previously had excluded them, namely factory labor, transportation conducting and ticket collecting, postal work, and clerical positions., To support the war effort, the government relied on the income tax (which had been instituted in 1913) and war bonds. There were four wartime loan drives for Liberty Bonds and one post-war effort named the Victory Liberty Loan. Local citizens enthusiastically embraced the cause by organizing parades, attending speeches about Arlington's war efforts, and encouraging local businesses to purchase bonds., During the Third Liberty Loan drive, an airplane manufactured in Alexandria (City) dropped thousands of leaflets promoting the bonds. During that drive, Arlington residents purchased $71,600 in bonds; an impressive result given that the smallest bond denomination of $50 equated to roughly two weeks salary for an average American worker. Arlingtonians also participated in government-sponsored resource efficiency initiatives to conserve food and supplies during wartime., The Impact of Service and War , More than 116,000 American service members died as a result of world war two: around 53,402 were killed in combat and about 63,306 died from causes such as training accidents and disease. The international flu epidemic of 1918 caused the deaths of at least 30,000 servicemen and women. Five Arlingtonians (Harry Vermillion, Edward Smith, Oscar Housel, Archie Williams, and Frederick Schutt) are known to have died of disease while in wartime service., world war one permitted for the first time the entrance of women into the armed forces. The Navy enrolled more than 11,000 women as "Yeomen (F)" and the Marine Corps enlisted 300 "Marine Reservists (F)." These women held rank and received identical pay as men. The Army hired (but did not enlist) thousands of women as nurses, operators, and clerks who received no military rank or benefits. More than 400 of the approximately 20,000 women who served at home and overseas as nurses died during the conflict., Stories of Some Who Served , Second Lieutenant John Lyon, the son of Frank and Georgia Lyon, was born in Ballston in 1893. He volunteered for duty in France in 1915 before the U.S. entered the war. Lyon later joined the Army and bravely sacrificed his life attempting to save a fellow soldier wounded under fire during the Meuse-Argonne offensive in September 1918., Private Arthur C. Morgan, born in Langley, Virginia, in 1887, lived in the historically black community of Hall's Hill when he registered for the war. He had been a laborer at the Arlington Experimental Farm, a research facility for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, since 1910. Morgan died of disease in France on December 3, 1918, shortly after the end of the war., Corporal Carl Christensen of Maywood died of pneumonia on February 23, 1919, in the Rhineland region of Germany. His sister Anna Hemerling lobbied tirelessly for nearly two decades to ensure that their parents received compensation for his death, which they finally did in 1938., The American Legion War Memorial's world war one plaque, installed in 1931, recognized 13 Arlingtonians who died in the war. Two of the soldiers, however, were segregated and differentiated by the word "colored" after their names. While Arthur Morgan and William Ralph Rowe sacrificed their lives in service to their country, the nation's practice of discrimination and segregation normalized this separated classification of names., Historic research undertaken during the commemoration of the centennial of world war one revealed the names of additional Arlingtonians who died in world war one military service. This discovery provides hope that through continued research, those fallen service members who have long been forgotten by history may be identified, their stories told, and their sacrifices honored.