This organization, headed by future President Herbert Hoover, was dedicated to delivering humanitarian aid to Belgium. The Schlieffen Plan, which the Germans were following in 1914, had made no provision for the administration of either occupied Belgium or France. Without the intervention of these Americans, catastrophe would have resulted. You can read a detailed article about this by clicking here.

James (“Jim”) Patton BS BA MPA is a retired state official from Shawnee, Kansas and a frequent contributor to several WW1 e-publications, including "Roads to the Great War," "St. Mihiel Tripwire," "Over the Top" and "Medicine in the First World War." He has spent many hours walking the WW1 battlefields, and is also an authority on British regiments and a collector of their badges. An Army Engineer during the Vietnam War, he does work for the US World War 1 Centennial Commission and is affiliated with the WW1 Historical Association, the Western Front Association, the Salonika Campaign Society and the Gallipoli Association.