How did the ww1 change the American military?

While all this was happening in the United States, there was still a war going on, and the situation was desperate. By April 1917, a million soldiers in the French army had been killed. In 1916's Battle of Verdun alone, the French lost about 160,000. In April 1917, the French poilus in seven corps were ordered to attack Chemin des Dames, a massive limestone formation that the Germans had transformed into a perfect defensive position. French units suffered 40,000 casualties the first day of the offensive and 271,000 over the course of the offensive. And then they quit. French soldiers had had enough, and about half of its infantry divisions refused to fight. These mutinies - - which the Germans never found out about - - caused the commander to resign and brought Gen. Philippe Petain, the hero of Verdun, to command of French forces. Petain, who collaborated with the Nazis in World War II, would rest the forces, grant leave and order no new offensives. His strategy "was to wait for the tanks and the Americans." Across the continent, Russian Czar Nicholas II had abdicated. While Russian forces were still in the field against German and Austro-Hungarian forces, they were stumbling toward dissolution with units already choosing sides for what would become a civil war. And in Italy, a combined German-Austrian offensive pushed the Italian army back 60 miles from the battle line along the Isonzo River in the Battle of Caporetto. To stabilize the front, British and French units - - desperately needed in France - - had to deploy to Italy. This was the situation Pershing faced when he arrived in France on June 10. A cobbled together U. S. Army provisional division - - which morphed into the 1st Division, "the Big Red One" - - began arriving later in the month to a rapturous welcome. On July 4, the Big Red One paraded through Paris and stopped at the tomb of the Marquis de Lafayette - - the French nobleman who valiantly fought in the American Revolution. "Lafayette, we are here," said Army Col. Charles E. Stanton during a speech at the tomb. And more would be coming. After surveying the strategic situation, Pershing sent a telegram to the War Department: "Plans contemplate sending over at least one million men by next May." It was a tall order, and at the time it was written, a seemingly impossible one.