An American on the Western Front - Perspectives in Military History Lecture Series - a podcast by U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center

February 21, 2018 - Mr. Patrick Gregory, Editor and Author

With the entrance of America into World War I, young Arthur Clifford Kimber put down his books at Stanford University and enlisted in the Allied cause on the Western Front. Joining the American Field Service as an ambulance volunteer, Kimber was tasked with carrying the first official U.S. Government flag to France. In this lecture, Mr. Patrick Gregory about Kimber, the subject of his recent book An American on the Western Front, co-authored with Elizabeth Nurser. The remarkable story of Kimber is a microcosm of the patriotism and fervor felt by the young men and women called to serve their country. Kimber tirelessly worked his way from ambulance volunteer in the front-line trenches in an American unit serving with the French army to joining the fledgling U.S. Air Service. He trained with French instructors and worked his way from ferrying aircraft to the front lines to piloting a fighter in combat with both the French and American Air Services. Mr. Gregory uses the letters Kimber wrote to his family to tell the story of a young man whose hopes and dreams for a life after the war were suddenly ended when he was killed in action weeks before the Armistice.

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