In celebration of next Monday's Memorial Day, Museum Volunteer Thomas Price has penned the history of Walt's experience in joining the army and serving time in World War I.

In 1918, when George M. Cohan song “Over There” entreated young men to “grab your gun, on the run...do your bit, show your grit...make your Daddy glad ...make your Mother proud,” thousands heeded this call. Four years into World War I, a young Walt Disney was one of them. Filled with patriotic enthusiasm, and captivated by recruitment ads like “The Red Cross versus the Iron Cross,” young men barely past boyhood signed up to travel overseas and fight in The Great War. As Walt reflected much later, “The things I did during those ten months I was overseas added up to a lifetime of experience...I know being on my own at an early age... made me more self reliant.” Exactly how he got there, however, is a story unto itself.

Although World War I began for Europeans in 1914, America initially took little notice of it. In fact, the pre-war U.S. Army was composed of a scattered handful of small regiments and the state-controlled National Guard militia. When the U.S. finally declared war on Germany in 1917, General John J. Pershing was given command of the American Expeditionary Force to fight overseas. As the Yanks were shipped “over there”, they were given the nickname “Doughboys.” Fighting trenchfoot and “cooties”, or body lice, and later influenza, they were on the offensive by 1918 involved in heavy fighting in France.

By the summer of 1918, the Germans were on every American’s mind, including Walt Disney’s. Living in Chicago where his father was involved with the O-Zell Jelly Company, Walt did not want to return to McKinley High School. He even had written to the principal Mr. Cottingham that he had been “disgusted” by his previous year there. Starting to dabble in the entertainment industry, Walt and his friend Russell Maas put a down-payment on a movie camera and intended to begin making children’s films. The war bug, however, had also taken hold of Walt. Two of his older brothers were already in the armed forces; Ray had been drafted in the Army, and Roy was an enlistee in the Navy. During one of Roy’s visits to Chicago from his Great Lakes posting, Walt met him at the train station and remarked later that his brother "looked swell in that sailor’s uniform.” This was very appealing to young Walt, who loved costumes his entire life, and had already been in uniform himself as a high school cadet, postman, gateman, and train “butcher”. Further, Roy’s letters were full of “blowing bugles and ...patriotism,” Walt remembered. “I just had to get in there.” But Walt was only 16, and 17 was the minimum age for enlistment.

First, he tried to sign up for the Navy, but was turned down due to his age. Next, he and his friend Russell Maas attempted the Canadian armed forces, except Russell was rejected for his poor eyesight. Not wanting to go without each other, Walt and Russell concocted yet another plan: they would join the Red Cross Ambulance Corps, as they weren’t quite as particular on the subject of age. Applying as the falsified “St. John” brothers, these 16 year olds were told they still needed their parents’ signatures for their forms as well as passports. In the meantime, Russell’s mother had found a suitcase in the early packing stages, and suspecting something was afoot, alerted Walt’s mother, Flora Disney. Walt confessed the plan, but Elias, his father, refused to sign the enlistment documents, exclaiming “I might be signing your death warrant!”. Surprisingly, Flora took Walt’s side in the matter, saying “Three of my sons have left this family in the middle of the night. Walter’s determined to go, Elias, even if he has to sneak out like his brothers. I’d rather sign this paper and know where he is.” Angry, Elias concluded, “Forge my name if you want, but I won’t sign,” storming out. Flora did. Yet, Walt’s actual birth year reflected, 1901, would still keep him from the Ambulance Corps so Walt himself, determined to go, changed it to 1900. On September 16, 1918, he enlisted.