Much has been written about the exploits of the American Expeditionary Forces, the men and women sent overseas to fight during World War I, but much less is known about the two million who served in the Army without ever setting foot on foreign soil. This book examines the history of depot brigades, development battalions, U.S. Guards units, Students' Army Training Corps, and other "forgotten" troops charged with training soldiers, guarding installations, and performing myriad other duties. It also chronicles the service of men like actor Jimmy Cagney, author F. Scott Fitzgerald, movie director Frank Capra, children's author Ludwig Bemelmans, and the two million others who served in the United States during the war. At the time, many of these men considered themselves unfortunate cast-offs, doomed to spend the war safe at home while their friends served in combat overseas. But, in the end, it was largely because of them that America could field an effective fighting force.

From the Book's Foreword: Long-awaited, Mary C Gillett's final work The Army Medical Department, 1917-1941, complete her four-volume study covering the years from 1775 to 1941. Although the Medical Department had improved medical standards and practices because of the latest advances in scientific medicine and was making significant progress toward creating an organizational structure and a supply system able to handle the demands of a conflict of any size, its reserves of trained personnel and supplies were seriously inadequate when the nation entered world War I in the spring of 1917. The narrative first describes the struggle of an unprepared department to meet the myriad demands of a war unprecedented size and complexity, then follows postwar efforts to meet the needs of the peacetime army during nearly two decades of continental isolationism and budgetary neglect, and finally covers the brief period of growing awareness of America's involvement in another major conflict and the intensive preparation efforts that ensued.