But what was to become of the American Field Service when the American Expeditionary Force reached French shores? Could it plausibly continue as an independent organization? Andrew at once played for the highest stakes, proposing to use the field service as one of the foundation stones of the AEF and thereafter to maintain it as a separate unit in the United States Army's table of organization. Had Charles Evans Hughes been elected President in 1916 and General Leonard Wood been returned to his position as army chief of staff, Andrew's bid might well have succeeded, for the French authorities made no secret of their preference for immediate reinforcement of the organization already in the field. Indeed, when Marshal Joffre visited America with the French War Commission early in May, he paid a startling tribute to such a small group of volunteer drivers by requesting that the United States undertake the transportation of all their wounded. But like Leonard Wood, whose close relationship with Theodore Roosevelt made him persona non grata with President Wilson, Andrew was out of the command sweepstakes from the beginning. Neither General Pershing nor Surgeon General Gorgas was interested in the American Field Service; Command positions in the AEF, they insisted, would be given solely to professional soldiers and not to outsiders like Andrew. And so the United States Army established an ambulance organization of its own as part of its medical service. It was patterned on the field service but ten times larger in men and resources.
Andrew Gray, The American Field Service , AFS NY 1989, p 9
The commitment to the Field Service to the French cause---its militancy---led it to adapt to changing conditions in order to continue its mission---which meant accepting "militarization", that is:
1. The transfer of institutional authority from the American Hospital of Paris to the United States Army Ambulance Service.
2. The recruiting of its experienced staff and drivers into the ranks of the U.S. Army.
3. The transformation of a "volunteer organization" into a unit of the U.S. Army Expeditionary Forces.
WHEN at last America joined forces with the Allies, and American troops were sent to France, they found the ambulance and transport branches of the American Field Service thoroughly established and functioning as useful parts of the French Army. The ambulance branch included about twelve hundred volunteers, with nearly a thousand ambulances built upon a model developed and perfected in the course of its three years of active service. It had its own spacious headquarters and reception park in the heart of Paris, its own construction and repair park and supply dépôt, its own training-camp, its own share in the French automobile officers' school, its own home and hospital for men convalescing and on furlough, and above all it had all of its relations with the French Army, of which it was a part, not merely formulated, but tested and revised by several years of actual operation. The transport branch, including about eight hundred volunteers, using the same Paris headquarters and home, and the same department of the French officers' school as the ambulance branch, but with two special training-camps of its own, was also a tried and working proposition which had been rendering helpful and appreciated service with the French Army for several months. The French authorities were anxious that both formations should be continued and that the entry of the United States in the war should not result in any interruption of either of these services upon which they had come to count. Maréchal Joffre, in his trip to the States in the spring of 1917, appealed to the American Government to this end, and as a result of his appeal, it was agreed in Washington that both branches of the Field Service should be adopted by the American Army and reloaned to France, so that they could go on functioning as they had before, only under official American auspices. During the autumn of 1917, accordingly, the ambulance sections, then numbering thirty-three, were incorporated in the United States Army Ambulance Service with the French Army, and the camion sections, numbering fourteen (the so-called Réserve Mallet), were militarized as the American Mission with the French Army of the Motor Transport Corps. A majority of the Field Service volunteer drivers willingly enlisted in the United States Army in order that the entity and work of their sections might continue.
A. Piatt Andrew, "The Field Service and the U.S. Army", in History of the American Field Service in France, "Friends of France," 1914-1917, Told by its Members. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1920. Volume I.
Far from all Field Service drivers wished to become soldiers in the USAAS, though. Many turned a deaf ear to the USAAS recruiters and joined other services, such as the French artillery or combat branches of the American Expeditionary Forces. Such also was the case for the men of the Norton-Harjes Corps:
Towards the end of August, I was called to Paris, to meet Colonel Kean, who had just arrived to take charge of the ambulance service. He very kindly offered me, Kemp, and the others, who formed what I might call my staff, commissions in his service. This, however, was of necessity to be so different from the one we had managed for the past three years that we none of us saw our way to accept his offer, and from this time till the end of October we were kept very busy trying to help the transference of our service to the army authorities. Accompanied by Major Murphy, who most generously gave us a week of his time, I visited all the sections. At each of them, I told the men that while the time for their services as volunteers has passed, I should expect every one of them to do something for our country. In my mind it made no difference whether they stayed on in the ambulance service or took up some other line of work, but work of some sort they must do; that no one could make up their minds for them, but they must use their consciences, and do their duty as they saw it. Major Murphy spoke to them, in much the same sense, but he added that the most selfish thing he had ever done was going to the Cuban War when he ought to have stayed at home.
That they did do as I asked them and obeyed their consciences I am convinced, for some seventy per cent of the men then enrolled in our ranks are now in one branch or another of the army.
"Richard Norton, Class of 1892" in Harvard in the Great War , M.A.DeWolfe Howe (ed), Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, (in 5 volumes),1922.
It was obvious that Col. Kean had come with an entire misapprehension as to what the men want to do. He was much surprised to learn that the whole plant of cars, men and material could not be turned over to him at once, lock, stock and barrel. I point out of course the difficulties--such as the fact that Section VII is incorporated under the Law of England and although wound up and disbanded, its property can only be turned over to a charitable institution and even the Colonel could scarcely consider the U.S. Army came into that category."
From a letter of Richard Norton to his brother Eliot, August 25, 1917, copied by Watson C. Emmet into his personal diary (presently in the possession of his son, Edouard Emmet, of Paris).
The drivers of Norton's sections, following the example of their leader, refused to do ambulance work as anything other than volunteers for a humanitarian cause --- so their units were disbanded. Norton-Harjes drivers wishing to continue work simply left France and moved to Italy where they joined American Red Cross units operating as volunteers---not under military authority, as in France.
The Field Service's decision to "stay in business" despite the change of uniform---not to mention its relation to the Escadrille Lafayette or its military transport work---- clearly demonstrated that its primary mission had become to serve the French, not to perform disinterested humanitarian service!
Steps were being taken at this time to incorporate in the new United States Army Ambulance Service the several sections of the American Field Service, mainly collegians, which had been attached to French divisions since early in the war. As Joffre had said that one concrete way in which we could aid would be by officially organizing an ambulance service, the President, under the act approved May 18, had directed organization of the Army Ambulance Service, of 160 sections, each with 20 motor ambulances in charge of an enlisted personnel of 45 commanded by a first lieutenant. This was to be within the Medical Department. There were to be 43 other commissioned officers---l colonel, 2 lieutenant colonels, 8 majors, and 32 captains. An amendment later added 9 sections, also 2 captains and 9 first lieutenants. Members of the Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps in active service under previous authority were transferred to sections of the Ambulance Service organized in the United States. Recruiting began in Philadelphia, and the headquarters were moved June 9 to Allentown, Pa., where soon there were 3, 000 men. More than 40 colleges furnished one or more sections of 45 men each. The formal creating order was not issued until June 23.
Frank H. Martin, "The United States Takes Over the Ambulance Sections" in Digest of the Proceedings of the Council of National Defense during the World War. Washington: U.S. Senate. 1934.
Upon the entry of the United States into the conflict, there swiftly followed for us complexities great and small. Foremost, perhaps, was the question of whether our volunteers then in France might continue so to serve, and whether, at least for the present, we might continue to accept more recruits. In view of the exigencies of mobilization and conscription, it seemed best to consult at once with the Secretary of War. Although Mr. Baker had shown himself in various ways appreciative of the Field Service, he naturally had not felt at liberty to give any public expression in this regard until April 7, when he wrote as follows:
Confirming our conversation of this morning, I beg leave to say to you, as the Representative of the American Ambulance Field Service, that the War Department looks with appreciation and approval upon the splendid service being rendered by American citizens in France in association with the French Army. These young men are serving their own country in the highest way by their courageous contribution to the efficiency of the armies of those associated in interest with us in this war I, perhaps, have no right to urge that they remain in France now that the United States has entered upon active military preparation in the conflict, but, at least for the present, a substantial number of these young men will not be needed here, and the training they are securing, while a mere incident to the service they are rendering, will qualify them to be of especial value in the American Army at a later time.
(Signed)
Newton D.Baker
Secretary of WarHenry D. Sleeper, "Recruiting the Volunteers", in History of the American Field Service in France, "Friends of France," 1914-1917, Told by its Members. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1920. Volume I.
The taking over of the Service by the United States Army was not only to be desired, but for several reasons was inevitable. Our declaration of war and the subsequent preparations for sending over our expeditionary force, which involved strict draft regulations, had placed members of a volunteer organization at the front in a technically ambiguous position. While the record and standing of our ambulance drivers with the French Army was of the highest order, as the honors and citations conferred upon them testify, it was obvious that the work that they had undertaken voluntarily had since become an obligation. The changed circumstances made many hundred of our men feel that having fulfilled the original spirit of their intention, they were now free to enlist as they chose. During the subsequent months a large number entered artillery, aviation, or other branches of the army. About sixty per cent, however, remained as members of the ambulance and transport.More than a hundred of our men, with fine records and long experience, who were anxious to enlist for the duration of the war, were rejected on account of slight physical defect. Be it said to their credit, the majority of them subsequently entered the French Artillery School at Fontainebleau, and graduating in due course, became officers in the French Army.The most potent factor, however, necessitating our enrollment in the United States National Army, was that when the first French commission arrived in Washington in May, 1917, General Joffre was asked by Surgeon-General Gorgas what immediate service the United States Army Medical Department could do for France. His reply was a request that the United States should undertake, as far as possible, the responsibility of caring for the wounded of the French armies at the front. A more satisfying tribute could scarcely have been paid the Field Service than this request that the work it had carried on in France for more than two years should be supplemented and entirely assumed by Americans. As a consequence, General Gorgas authorized, through the Secretary of War, the organization of the United States Army Ambulance Service at Allentown.
Henry D. Sleeper, "The Camion Service and Militarization", in History of the American Field Service in France, "Friends of France," 1914-1917, Told by its Members. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1920. Volume I.
Now came the period which saw the Service at the height of its development, namely, the spring and summer of 1917. During these months the sections and individuals did work of which they will always be proud. Let us take the ambulance sections first. Section One had moved to the Aisne, just west of Reims, in a sector which, although quiet, cost them two comrades. Nineteen-sixteen history, however, repeated itself, and again they came to Verdun during a great battle, being once more stationed at their old poste on the right side of the Meuse. It was a privilege this time to place their cantonment where formerly they had only dared go to advanced postes at night, but their work was even more difficult and more dangerous in this second great battle of Verdun and they well merited their Army Citation. [...]The transport sections, formed in groups in the Réserve Mallet, were busy carrying ammunition and supplies in preparation for the Chemin des Dames offensive. The work of these eight hundred men, although confined to one area, brought them to all the battery emplacements in this region, not only difficult runs, but dangerous as well.
The last months of 1917 marked the transition period when both branches of the Service were transferred to the United States Army. The organization of the United States Army did not permit of an automobile service, so the decision was made that the Réserve Mallet would be taken over by the Quartermaster Corps and the Ambulance Service would be taken over by the United States Army Ambulance Service with the French Army, a special bill having been passed by Congress to make possible this new arrangement. There were many volunteers who, through previous experience or through desire, wished to enlist or obtain commissions in the other branches of the American Army.
Stephen Galatti, (SSU & HQ), "1917", in History of the American Field Service in France, "Friends of France," 1914-1917, Told by its Members. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1920. Volume I.
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Frank H. Martin. Digest of the Proceedings of the Council of National Defense during the World War. Washington: U.S. Senate. 1934.
Andrew Gray, The American Field Service , AFS NY 1989
Arlen Hansen. Gentlemen Volunteers, New York: Arcade, 1996. Chapter 9: "Militarizing the Gentlemen Volunteers"
Summary of activities of Field Service Units after their militarization. |