Three Tough WWI Marines

[kanemono]

Here are three tough Marines. The one on the right is William L. Clark if you look, he is wearing an AFS eagle pin with a six months bar. This is part of a WW1, American Field Service and USMC group. If you click on the image it will enlarge.

Dick

[teufelhunde.ret]

Neat pic, and they are wearing EGA collar discs...

[trenchbuff]

Great photo! Clark was quite the adventurer. First the AFS and then the Marines. Those are very interesting billy clubs too. Thanks for the post. Would love to see more of the group.

[kanemono]

Thanks, I will post the entire group when I am able to scan and photograph everything. His billy club is with the group.

Dick

[Hessian]

What a great pic! Congrats. Love to see the rest of the grouping.

[Croix de Guerre]

Hi Kanemono, Your excellent images have me a bit puzzled. I checked the AFS rosters and I cannot find anyone named William Clark that served in the AFS in 1916 that matches up with your man. I studied the photo of him in his ambulance drivers uniform and then looked closely at the "AFS badge" he is wearing on his Marine uniform. The badge he is wearing on his Marine uniform is a service badge given out by the American Hospital in Paris. This decoration is not usually associated with American Field Service volunteers because by 1916 the Hospital and the American Field Service had severed their relationship.

 

The AFS began as an off-shoot from volunteer ambulance drivers that served at the American Hospital in Paris and later at the American Ambulance in Neuilly. To make a long and complicated story short; the American Hospital began to put into service ambulance sections "in the field". These sections were directed by a man named A. Piatt Andrew. Under Andrew's leadership and political influence these "field sections" expanded and grew, eventually leading to a dispute between Hospital staff and Andrew. This dispute culminated in the American Ambulance Field Service breaking away from the American Hospital and being renamed the "American Field Service".

 

Back in Paris however, the American Hospital still had sections of ambulances and drivers that continued to transport wounded from the railheads in Paris back to the hospital. This was not the so-called glamorous work of the AFS as they were not driving at night, dodging shells and clouds of poison gas near the front lines, but doing the tedious but completely necessary work of transporting wounded in the city.

 

Having said all this, I still could be wrong. Some men that served in the AFS were left off the rosters for a multitude of reasons. You mentioned that there are other items in the group. Perhaps if you could post some additional photos, it might clear things up.

 

Attached is an example of an American Hospital service badge.

[Croix de Guerre]

Close up of Clark's ambulance badge

[ka bar]

What on earth did they have "Billy Clubs" for?

[Bugme]

What on earth did they have "Billy Clubs" for?

If you look close at the photo's you can see the subdued MP brassards. This would explain the clubs.

 

BTW,Tom is spot on about the American Hospital service badge. I think that is what we're seeing in the photo. Either way AFS or AH, he still had a cool history.