November 11, 1918 was the 100 year anniversary of the end of WW I. Dave Curtin, our April 11, 2019 OLLI speaker, notes that on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. are dramatic memorials commemorating the American participation and sacrifices in World War Two, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, three of the four major American wars of the Twentieth Century. Millions of Americans visit these memorials yearly.

Noticeably absent, however, is a national monument on the Mall marking the United States' role in its other major war of the Twentieth Century, the First World War. This absence fits with what many historians describe as America's "forgetting" its critical engagement in the "Great War" and those who served in it.

In France, however, the role of the United States in the First World War is widely commemorated in monuments, some financed and maintained by the US government, some created any US states or veterans of American units, and some by the French government or citizen groups. Cemeteries maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission contain the remains of thousands of young Americans who died in France in 1917-18. Dave's presentation focuses on these memorials to the Doughboys in the "Great War".

Dave Curtin is a retired Intelligence Officer, Defense Intelligence Agency and a long- time student of US Military History, including the American insolvent in WW I. HIs maternal grandfather served in the 26th (Yankee) Division during the Great war, was gassed in July 1918, and died when Dave's mother was a child from complications from his gassing. To learn more about his grandfather's war, Dave took a 2011 Military History tour of the American WW I battle fields in France and was, in some ways, astonished to discover the number and quality of the monuments and cemeteries he saw on this trip. He will share pictures from his trip.

This is the 5th in the St Johnsbury Osher Lifelong Learning 8 lecture Spring semester at Catamount Arts on Eastern Ave. The April 11, 2019 presentation begin at 1:30 pm till 3:00 and is included for members, $6 for others. Home school students are welcome. DVDs of past programs are available to borrow from Catamount Arts.

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