President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany on 02 April 1917. The reason for this was the braising attacks on all ships, military or merchant, traveling to and from French and British ports, by German u-boats. These sinkings included three merchant ships belonging to America in March 1917. Congress and the House of Representatives surprisingly quickly responded with declarations of war, and the U.S. entered the “Great War.” Many thought that because of the purpose of the declaration of war, the sinking of the American ships, that President Wilson would have used his Navy to fight this war. However, the Allies and Army leadership did not really support this type of fight. Instead they thought taking the fight to the Germans on the Western Front would be better. The U.S. did not enter the war until it was in its fourth year. Wilson wanted to remain neutral and continue trading with all countries up until the sinking of the three American ships. In late April of 1917, the Allies sent delegates to America to try and figure out what the U.S. role in the campaign would be. The two Allies, however, did not have a set plan of agreement on how the Americans were to help out. Neither of the Allies believed in the Americans’ ability to train forces to the level needed in that short amount of time. The French wanted to send an American division to France to symbolize the Americans participation (James A. Henretta, 2012). The British also had its expectation and plans. The British however wanted 500,000 Americans to ship to England, where they would be trained, equipped, and incorporated into the British Army. The bringing of Americans into the French and British units was a much more feasible option. It was easier to attach forces to the French and British units than it would have been to build a new force from scratch for many reasons, the main one was limited time and limited shipping of the forces across the ocean. Although it was a great idea, many Americans did not accept the fact they would serve under the British, which America had worked so hard in the past to defeat. With that being said, President Wilson rejected the British proposal but did agree to send a division to France immediately. With the help of Marshal Jofree, and Army planners, the organization of four regiments of 17,700 men, 11,000 being infantrymen began. During the same time that the division being sent to France was being organized, Maj. Gen. Hugh L. Scott, the Chief of Staff, asked Maj. Gen. John J. Pershing to pick four infantry regiments and a field artillery regiment to serve overseas (Stewart, 2005), they would be called the First Expeditionary Division. Gen. Pershing chose his regiments however the numbers he required and actual numbers of personnel were very different. This difference required new recruits to be place in his war ready units. When they left to go to France there were about two-thirds raw recruits in this Division. Although Pershing picked the units to be part of the First Expeditionary Division, he did not command them. On June 8, 1917 Gen. William L Sibert assumed command of the Division and four days later set sail for France (Stewart, 2005). Pershing was however selected by Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, to command the much larger American Expeditionary Force. Pershing and Maj. James G. Harborb agreed upon the selection thirty officers to be on their staff. Pershing and his staff analyzed the First Division and everything else from munition supplies to embankment plans, and set sail for France on 28 May. 1917. One of Pershing’s biggest tasks was figuring out the best place to place the American Expeditionary Force. Pershing accomplished this by sending out his staff to find a suitable place. Pershing was very fond of a place called Lorraine, so of course he sent his staff out to ensure it would suit their needs. The staff wanted to use Lorraine for many reasons. Lorraine was easy to deploy a large force from, easy to supply this force by using the railways without disturbing the existing forces and it is also gave them an easier approach for major offensives against the Germans (Stewart, 2005). Once it was decided that Lorraine was going to be the station for the AEF, they turned their attention to building the AEF. When building the AEF Pershing did not necessarily want a swift powerful force but a force that could withstand prolonged periods of brutal warfare. Although Pershing and his staff had all these great ideas and strategies, the Army’s numbers once again could not support them. In April 1917 the Regular Army only had 127,588 officers and men, the National Guard had only 80,446, bringing the total to 208,000 men (James A. Henretta, 2012). This number was just a drop in the hat compared to the forces they were going up against. The small Army did not even have enough artillery or machine guns to support it. Another issue was that most of the men in the Army at this time had no experience in large-scale planning or any other task that involved a large scale force. Once realized that the Americans did not have enough manpower, Congress instituted a draft. With the institution of the draft by the selective service act, the Army’s numbers went from 200,000 to 3.7 million by Nov 1918. With the tremendous number of personnel the Army had in order to support Pershing’s offensive there came new challenges. The Army had to set up training camps, equip these soldiers, and of course compensate them. The answer for training these soldiers was to set up thirty-two camps throughout the U.S. where soldiers trained for four months on their military specialties (Stewart, 2005). This practice is still practiced to this day in the Army. Allies could not wait for the American forces to be trained and continued to beg and plead for the Expeditionary Forces, however Pershing would only send them when they was one hundred percent ready. This did not happen until mid-1918, causing French and British forces to fight the grueling trench wars by their selves. The pressure began to build with the collapse of the Eastern Front in November of 1917. The Bolshevik Revolution helped the Bolshevik re-consolidate its powers, and seek peace with Central Powers. This was accomplished by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, and allowed Bolsheviks to be freed from the fight with Germany. With Germany free from the fight they were able to mount a massive offensive on the Western Front. As German forces advanced closer and closer to Paris, Allie leaders frantically called on the U.S. for more troops. The requests were finally answered by 60,000 of Pershing’s men. With the constant flow of U.S. forces pouring in, the Allies were able to end the Germans in July, and force them to retreat in September. Once the Germans started retreating, Pershing poured over one million forces against them in the Argonne Forest. This overwhelming push forced the Germans to sign an armistice on 11 November, 1918, bringing the war to an end. In closing, it is a very good thing that we were in WW1. The war not only let our Allies know that we had their backs, it also let them know we will do whatever it takes to support them. The war also helped us economically by providing many jobs. There were jobs needed to produce everything from weapons to food. The war also helped establish the U.S. as a superpower. Imagine where we would be if we hadn’t entered this war.