AFS volunteers and ambulance in World War I.

The American Field Service (AFS) was established in 1915 by A. Piatt Andrew , a political economics professor at Harvard University and a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. Created as an ambulance arm for the American Hospital in Paris, it cut its ties with the hospital to become a volunteer organization providing ambulance and transport services to the Allied forces in France during World War I. Andrew's idea originated from the Anglo-American Ambulance volunteer service, organized by American Marion Sims for service during the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War.

Headquartered at an ancient château at 21 rue Raynouard in the Parisian suburb of Passy, the American Field Service had more than 800 volunteer ambulance drivers plus many transport sections. The AFS actively recruited its drivers from the campuses of American colleges and universities with individual ambulance units made up exclusively of drivers from particular universities. They all worked without pay, and ambulance driving required the volunteers to serve under extremely dangerous missions on the Front. There were 151 drivers with the AFS who were killed and a number of others earned the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor for their heroic actions.

During World War I there was another volunteer ambulance corps in France called the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps as well as the American Red Cross service in Italy. Several members of these volunteers corps went on to distinguished literary careers.

When the United States entered the war in 1917, both the American Field Service and Norton-Harjes were merged into the U.S. Army Ambulance Corps on August 30, 1917. Also, once the Americans entered the war, many of AFS volunteers joined the U.S. armed forces as officers and served in the regular Army.

Following the Great War, the AFS continued as a legal entity, offering student scholarships to France until World War II when they again provided ambulance service in France and as well in North Africa.

In September 1946, Stephen Galatti , president of AFS established the American Field Service International Scholarships. During the 1947-48 school year the first students came from ten countries including Czechoslovakia, Estonia, France, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Syria. Since then, the American Field Service has operated a student exchange program, including mulilateral exchanges so that, as an example, a Danish student could go to Brazil or an American could go to Germany etc. As of 2004 there are 54 AFS organizations worldwide, serving 75 different countries, providing exchange opportunities for over 10,000 students and teachers annually.

Notable AFS Volunteers

Several notable members of the elite served with one of the ambulance or transport services during World War I.

• C. Leroy Baldridge
• Louis Bromfield
• William Slater Brown
• Samuel Chamberlain
• Malcolm Cowley
• Harry Crosby
• E. E. Cummings
• Russell Davenport
• John Dos Passos
• Julian Green
• Dashiell Hammett
• Ernest Hemingway
• Robert Hillyer
• Sidney Howard
• John Howard Lawson
• Desmond MacCarthy
• John Masefield
• Somerset Maugham
• Charles Nordhoff
• George Frederick Norton
• Waldo Peirce
• William Seabrook
• Robert W. Service
• Sir Hugh Walpole
• Edward Weeks
• Martin Cichocki
• Lorenzo Mattozzi

See also

• Youth for Understanding

External links

• American Field Service Official Website
• Youth Exchange and Study
• The American Field Service Story
• History of the American Field Service in France, 1920
• Memorial Volume of the American Field Service in France, 1921