“Unless you’re really up on your history, you don’t think about George Catlett Marshall in World War I,” said Yockelson. He is the author of “Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing’s Warriors Came of Age To Defeat the German Army in World War I.”
“Marshall cut his teeth under Pershing’s tutelage,” said Yockelson, lead investigator with the National Archive and Records Administration.
Pershing recognized the organizational skills that would take Marshall from his Vancouver Barracks command in 1936-38 to the position of Army chief of staff during World War II.
Hosted by the Vancouver Barracks Military Association, the conference will mark the anniversary of America’s participation in World War I. U.S. troops arrived in Europe on June 26, 1917, and the fighting ended on Nov. 11, 1918.
More than a dozen speakers are scheduled; tickets will be required for all their presentations. Topics with local connections include the Vancouver Barracks spruce mill, which turned out up to a million board feet of spruce a day, and the Spanish influenza pandemic.
There will be free public events at Providence Academy from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to noon Sunday.
“Black Jack” Pershing got the nickname after commanding a black “Buffalo Soldier” cavalry regiment.
“He was an Indian fighter,” Yockelson noted. And that doesn’t come close to describing the depth of Pershing’s military r?sum?. He saw some action in the Civil War, although in this case seeing action meant watching his father pick up a shotgun to defend their store against Confederate raiders.
“He was a little boy, around 2. He and his family lived in Missouri, a border state. He witnessed these Confederate bushwhackers shooting up the place. He was clinging to his father’s leg, his father was getting ready to be a combatant,” and Mrs. Pershing kept her husband from returning fire.
Pershing was not interested in a military career, Yockelson said.
“He wasn’t all that into the Army. It was a path to West Point for an education. His plan was to go to West Point, graduate, fulfill his obligation, bail out and get his law degree. He learned he had a natural aptitude for leadership. He found a life in the Army. The Army saved him when he lost his wife and three of their four children” in a house fire, Yockelson said.
After the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, Pershing found himself in conflict with America’s allies as well as the Germans.
“Pershing was getting depressed. He was under a lot of pressure from Allied commanders, who would love to have him sacked.”
British and French had been lobbying to take over the American forces and put the American doughboys under their command.
If You Go
• What: Vancouver Barracks World War I Centennial Conference.
• When: Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
• Cost: $50 donation requested; tickets and information at www.vbma.us
• Free public events: 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m.-noon Sunday at Providence Academy, 400 E. Evergreen Blvd.
“That was not going to happen from the beginning. (President) Wilson, to his credit, wanted a completely independent force.
“It ended on a positive note; no spoiler there. The fact that there was an armistice on Nov. 11 was a direct result of the Americans taking on this huge front” along the Meuse River and Argonne Forest, he said. “That really brought the German troops to their knees.”
Pershing’s contributions went beyond that significant achievement.
“Pershing was almost the godfather of the modern Army. He brought the U.S. military into the modern age,” Yockelson said. “He knew nothing about artillery or airplanes or tanks. He had to rely on French and British artillery and tanks. But it happened under his leadership.”
