Calvin Coolidge and John W. Weeks sit with senior military leaders on a reviewing stand during the 1924 Defense Day parade. Also present are Grace Coolidge, John J. Pershing, and John L. Hines. Defense Day was organized nationwide after World War I to promote military readiness and national unity, with parades, drills, and public demonstrations held in cities across the United States.
General Pershing Making a Memorial Day Address, 1919
June 1919, General John J. Pershing spoke at a Memorial Day ceremony in Romagne, France, before American troops of the A.E.F. and French soldiers. The reviewing stand is covered in American flags, and rows of servicemen stand at attention across the hillside. The gathering came just months after the Armistice, near ground where many had fallen in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. As the war ended and units waited to head home, ceremonies like this honored the dead and reminded those present of the scale and sacrifice of America’s involvement in the First World War.