“When Congress declared war on April 6, 1917, the United States was a second-class military power.

The Army, relegated to showing the flag in Latin America and pursuing Mexican banditti, consisted of 108,399 men, a third of whom were on garrison duty in Panama, Hawaii, and the Philippines. The various state militias, recently formed into a National Guard, added but another 200,000, and there was no organized reserve. The Navy numbered slight more than 60,000 in all ranks, with a mere 197 ships on active service.

“Within six months the Navy’s strength expanded fourfold. By war’s end nearly half a million men had joined the fleet and the number of ships exceeded two thousand. During the same time, the Army grew to 2.4 million men. General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force, landed at Boulogne, France, on June 13, 1917. On July 4, elements of the 1st Division paraded down the Champs-Élysées.

“Ultimately, more than 2 million men would serve in the AEF, escorted safely across the Atlantic by the Navy’s Cruiser and Transport Force. Except for sporadic firings at German submarines, the U.S. Navy did not engage the enemy in World War I. But thanks to its escort duty, when the armistice was signed the Navy could boast that not one American troopship had been lost in action.”

— Jean Edward Smith, in his book FDR

Image: A Fast Convoy; USS Allen (DD-66) & USS Leviathan (SP-1326)