I like to learn about unsung heroes and tell their stories - here are a few of them.

Known as the Harlem Hellfighters, the 369th (15th N.Y.) was an infantry regiment of the New York Army National Guard during World War I and World War II. During WWI, the 369th fought under French command because the US Army was segregated.  Nine soldiers of the 369th (15th N.Y.), awarded the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action, 1919.  

Left to right. Front row: Pvt. Ed Williams, Herbert Taylor, Pvt. Leon Fraitor, Pvt. Ralph Hawkins. Back Row: Sgt. H. D. Prinas, Sgt. Dan Storms, Pvt. Joe Williams, Pvt. Alfred Hanley, Cpl. T. W. Taylor

This photograph, by an unknown photographer, is in the public domain in the United States. ARC Identifier: 26431282 US National Archives website.

American poet Alan Seeger was born in New York City on June 22, 1888, and received a BA from Harvard University in 1910. Known for his First World War poems, Seeger spent two years in the French Foreign Legion. As an American citizen he could not join the French military since the United States had not yet entered the war against the Central Powers, so he did the next best thing and joined the Legion. He was killed in action on July 4, 1916 at Belloy-en-Santerre, France.

French and American brothers in arms: Monument at Place des Etats-Unis, Paris, to the American volunteers who fought for France prior to the United States entry in WWI.  American poet Alan Seeger (1888-1916) is one of the names on the monument.

Excerpts from Seeger's poem 'Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen for France' are on each end of the monument:

Hail, brothers, and farewell; you are twice blest, brave hearts.
Double your glory is who perished thus,
For you have died for France and vindicated us.

Yet sought they neither recompense nor praise,
Nor to be mentioned in another breath
Than their blue coated comrades whose great days
It was their pride to share—ay, share even to the death!

Full text at https://poets.org/poem/ode-memory-american-volunteers-fallen-france

Harriet Woods Eoff, who was the inspiration for my heroine Sophie Parker, was an American Red Cross nurse who served at the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) Base Hospital 57 in Paris. Harriet was 25 when she departed New York on the Lancashire and arrived in Paris around mid-September 1918.

This pastel portrait of Harriet is by Eugene Burnand, a Swiss artist who produced 106 portraits of WWI military, medical, and support personnel. The original portraits are in the Museum of the Legion of Honour in Paris. http://www.eugene-burnand.com/pastel%2075%20Miss%20Harriet%20Woods%20Eoff%20(nurse).htm