Today, the location of Camp Crane is used as the Allentown Fairgrounds When the United States entered World War I, the status of American volunteers in Europe became uncertain because they now had a U.S. military obligation to fulfill.

France, fearing the loss of ambulance volunteers, requested that the United States ensure the uninterrupted continuation of the vital service.

[1] However, even before that, beginning in mid-May, rumors of the Army being interested in establishing a training camp at the Allentown, Pennsylvania Fairgrounds began to circulate.

The fairgrounds was established in 1889 by the Lehigh County Agricultural Society (LCAS) as a site to hold its annual fair and operated a farmer's market inside a large grandstand, built in 1908.

Its mission was to train recruits as ambulance drivers, mechanics, orderlies and the other skills they would need on the Western Front.

At the same time Camp Crane became the home of over eighty doctors and other members of three temporary field hospitals that used Allentown as a staging area.

Harvard University, which had led in the number of volunteers for the American Field Service, set another record by providing three USAAS sections.

Volunteers for the Army Ambulance Service were generally conscientious objectors, who did not want to serve in combat units.

The Ambulance Service was a way for them to satisfy their draft obligation and also for those men who wanted to support the war effort, but not to serve directly in combat.

[1] The USAAC band participated in several concerts and parades in the Allentown area, as well as bond drives to support the war effort.

In 1917 John Dos Passos returned from service in France with Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps to find a draft notice awaiting him.

His novel Three Soldiers was based on his experiences there and featured characters he encountered in training at Camp Crane and later during his service in France.

[1] Other notable members of the USAAC who trained at Camp Crane were Ernest Hemingway, Harry Crosby, Ray Kroc, William A. Wellman, and Frank Buckles, whom became the last American World War I veteran.

To provide even more space, in November a site was set up in-between Heilerman's Crossing and Guth's Station as if they were in trenches in France.

[3] The recruits found living in the mud and dirt trenches there to be particularly vexing, but it was a good simulation of what they would find on the Western Front.

People invited recruits into their private homes for evenings away from the Camp, and local establishments held dances and other social outings.

[3] With the Armistice with Germany announced on November 11, 1918, a massive parade was held, and several hundred of the recruits being trained at Camp Crane marched through the city.

Flags at Camp Crane were taken down for the last time in a ceremony held at noon on 10 April 1919 and the fairgrounds was turned back over to the Agricultural society.