The boys who won the war

Jubilation and celebration demanded that on Nov. 11, 1918, the City of Pittsburgh host a Victory Parade. I entered the Army a few weeks earlier and had reported to a training camp located in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, where the University of Pittsburgh is now located.
Induction and training facilities needed open flat lands for our tents, marching and maneuvering grounds and other facilities, and the Army had hundreds of such sites scattered around the country
Our officers formed us up and we marched to downtown Pittsburgh, cheered all the way by happy citizens who, after the parade, bought us food, drinks, flowers and whatever.
We were heartily toasted as "The Boys that Won the War," although we had never left Pittsburgh!
About a quarter-century later, after Pearl Harbor, the recruiter told me that, at my age, they would need to make me a Lt. Colonel, but they had a huge need for Lieutenants. And so I served the Selective Service System as an examining physician doing pre-induction physicals for thousands of recruits.

Francis J. Arch, MD
(as told by his son)

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