11/10/2008 - Veterans Day 2008: Honoring AFS Service in the First World War
This November 11, France, Germany, Austria, Japan, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Russia, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States will commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended the “War To End All Wars” on November 11, 1918.
AFS (American Field Service) was founded in 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I, when young Americans living in Paris volunteered as ambulance drivers at the American Hospital of Paris. The AFS ambulance corps was organized under the leadership of A. Piatt Andrew, who became Inspector General of the AFS.
A. P. Andrew and S. Galatti at AFS Paris Headquarters, 1917
No group of Americans drew more strongly on shared Franco-American passion for freedom, justice, and excellence than the American Field Service volunteer ambulance and camion drivers of World War I. Beginning with the autumn of 1914, more than 2,500 young Americans left their studies to provide humanitarian service to France at an hour of need – in many cases at great or ultimate sacrifice. Their light Model T Ford ambulances participated in every major French battle and transported over 500,000 French casualties and military materiel prior to America’s entry to the war and the federalization of AFS units in France. Ambulance and camion drivers who served in World War I, and particularly those who gave their lives, established the principles that have marked AFS activities ever since. The AFS volunteers hoped to see continued the furthering of friendship and understanding with the people of France.
The motto of the AFS World War I volunteers was: “Tous et tout pour la France” (All and everything for France). When restated at the end of the war by A. Piatt Andrew, he added: “We all felt it. We all meant it. It is forever ours”.
At the end of World War II, the AFS veterans of WWI and WWII, who witnessed horrors of war were strongly motivated to work toward a just, more peaceful world through programs enlarging the skills of youth. AFS evolved from an ambulance corps carrying wounded soldiers in both World Wars into a global intercultural exchange organization that works in some 80 countries worldwide, places more than 13,000 students with host families worldwide—all volunteers—and has given this spirit of internationalism to more than 370,000 students since World War II.
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