20th Century
Claude Pepper is closely identified with the state of Florida, which he represented in the United States Congress for decades. However, he grew up and attended college in Alabama, where he volunteered for the Student Army Training Corps in 1918. From Pepper's autobiography:
During World War I, the draft age was twenty-one to thirty-one. But in 1918, Congress passed a law requiring all men eighteen to forty-five to register by September 12 of that year...and allowed students, eighteen, nineteen, and twenty years of age to volunteer--which, after passing the required physical examination, I did. With others in this age group, I was inducted on October 7, 1918...To me, the most immediate benefit of being in the army was financial; all expenses were taken care of. Of course, I was in a situation that could lead to my being killed, but like most eighteen-year-olds I didn't worry much about it.
In this photo, Claude Pepper and fellow Student Army Training Corps members from the University of Alabama prepare to fire a 16-inch rifled cannon from a gun emplacement during practice maneuvers. Claude Pepper later inscribed a brief note about the event on the back of the photo – "the fun I had in R.O.T.C."
Officers of the 24th Aero Squadron pose in front of one of their French Salmson fighter planes on the grounds of the Vavincourt Aerodrome in France. Captain Spessard L. Holland (back row, standing far left) went on to a significant career in politics, serving as the 28th Governor of Florida from 1941 to 1945 and U.S. Senator from Florida from 1947 to 1971.
This photo was taken the day after the Armistice of November 11, 1918, which ended World War I. Presumably spirits were high among soldiers that day, but Squadron Armament Officer Fred P. Kirschner tells a different story of their arrival to the Vavincourt Aerodrome:
We arrived in Vavincourt at three o'clock in the morning and found the village filled [to capacity] with American infantrymen...We finally salvaged some stoves and the [Squadron] slept in the hangars...
I told [the billeting officer] I had no desire to sit up all night...He finally located what was supposed to be a room—with the cows, chickens, pigs, geese, etc. Being all in [i.e. exhausted], I did not argue. You can imagine how I felt towards that billeting officer the next morning when I awakened and found that where the army underwear is wont to part in the middle, was as beautiful a belt of bedbug bites on my body as you can picture...
This short poem was composed by Canadian military physician John McCrae, just after the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium. It has been widely published and quoted in English-speaking countries since it first appeared in Punch magazine in 1915. It appears in poetry anthologies, in war bond advertisements, and has been set to music multiple times, including settings by American composers John Philip Sousa and Charles Ives.
These images are taken from an illuminated edition illustrated by Ernest Clegg, veteran of the British Expeditionary Force. An edition of just 265 copies was printed in 1921 by American publisher William Edwin Rudge to be given by Rudge as Christmas presents that year.
Herbert H. Dotter served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during and after World War II. During that time, he corresponded frequently with his fiancée Frances Isaac, who attended Florida State College for Women. At some point the relationship soured, and Dotter returned a Valentine's Day card from Isaac with some pointed annotations.
American servicemen overseas are forced to adapt to many changes – for some it is language and customs, and for the Floridians pictured here, it was climate. The winters in Korea were a novelty for these Tallahassee natives, and their reactions are well-documented in these images and captions.
Russell Heath was drafted into the United States Army Air Forces in 1945. After a short stint, Heath returned to work as a comic book illustrator. Heath is best-known as the artist for hundreds of war stories for DC Comics publications – some of his illustrations became the basis of paintings by Roy Lichtenstein.
Comic book artist and art educator Joe Kubert said of Heath:
He could illustrate mechanical things like rifles and tanks in a realistic way that few other artists could. He would build models of the things he would draw prior to drawing them and his stuff would come out right on the button.
Other artists used to keep what they called a swipe file - pictures of things they may have to draw someday that they could use for reference. Russ's work was so good, other artists used it as reference.
Many American comic books published during the 1960s featured stories set during World War II, as exemplified by Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos from the Marvel Comics Group. Sgt. Nick Fury and his supporting cast were co-created by U.S. Army veteran Jack Kirby. The magazine cover seen here features two of Kirby's most well-known creations, Nick Fury and Captain America, together in one story for the first time.
Kirby's cartoonish style was well-suited to depicting humans and superhumans in combat action, but he was also adept at quieter scenes, such as the pub scene featured here.