Mayor Pro Tem Jan Fisk proclaimed the 100th anniversary of America’s entry into World War I as World War I remembrance week in the city of Springfield on behalf of our grateful citizens in remembrance of those men of Springfield lost in World War I. The Color Guard and Sons of the American Revolution were on hand for the proclamation.
Whereas, we the citizens of Springfield, Missouri pause to pay tribute to the sons of Springfield who gave their lives during the First World War, in service to their fellow man, as marked on this stone in Grant Beach Park and in the hearts of their fellow citizens for eternity, and
Whereas, the Expeditionary Force of the United States Army during World War I, was established in France under the command of General John J. Pershing in 1917, and fought alongside the troops of France and England against the Empire of Germany, and
Whereas, many of those same troops fought alongside the Italian forces against the Austro-Hungarian Army, where they fought along the Western Front, The Hundred Days Offensive and the Italian Front, and
Whereas, 2,000,000 sons from American soil set their foot upon the battlefield it the defense of world freedom and preservation of the democratic system of justice, that blanket of freedom that we sleep under every night, and
Whereas President Woodrow Wilson declared war on April 17, 1917 against the Central Powers by formally joining the allied European Nations in the struggle for freedom and my doing so pledged our citizen warriors to fight “The War to End All Wars”, and
Whereas, Belleau Wood, Meuse-Argonne, and Saint Mihiel, previously unknown map notations would now bring home the news to over 100,000 American families that their sons would not be returning home, and many of the others who would be retuning would not be the same as when they left, and
Whereas, over one quarter of Americas young men between the age of 18 and 31 had served in a war that would change their lives and fortunes forever, we owe our fullest debt of gratitude to those men and women as we remember our lost sons of that same conflict, and
Whereas, George Washington guided the nation through the trials and tribulations of forming a new nation and established the United States assuring independence, and warning that conflict with others to protect those freedoms would most assuredly follow, and
Whereas, the Sons of the American Revolution celebrate the lives and sacrifices of the young men who gave their lives for the preservation of a world free of hostile rule, and rededicate ourselves today to remember our Patriot Ancestors who brought us to this new land and established a free and just society, and
I Jan Fisk, Mayor Pro Tem, therefore proclaim this 100th anniversary of America’s entry into World War I as World War I remembrance week in the City of Springfield, Missouri on behalf of our grateful citizens in remembrance of those men of Springfield lost in World War I.