Puerto Ricans in World War I
One of the consequences of the Spanish–American War was that Puerto Rico was annexed by the United States in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898, ratified on December 10, 1898.
As was the case nationwide and under Spanish control, the Puerto Rican units created during WWI (the 94th Infantry Division) were racially segregated.
[11] Puerto Ricans who resided in the United States, such as LT Augusto Rodriguez, fought in the American Civil War.
The Army Appropriation Bill created by an Act of Congress on March 2, 1899 authorized the creation of the first body of native troops in Puerto Rico.
On July 1, 1901, the United States Senate passed a Bill which would require a strict mental and physical examination for those who wanted to join the Regiment.
It also approved the recruitment of native Puerto Rican civilians to be appointed to the grade of Second Lieutenants for a term of four years if they passed the required tests.
On January 6, 1914, First Lieutenant Bernard L. Smith established the Marine Section of the Navy Flying School in the island municipality of Culebra.
Virgil R. Miller, a native of San Germán, Puerto Rico, who in World War II served as the Regimental Commander of the highly decorated 442d Regimental Combat Team, served in the San Juan unit of the Puerto Rico Home Guard;[24] 2nd Lt. Pedro Albizu Campos organized the Ponce unit of the Home Guard.
Lt. Teófilo Marxuach's unit of the Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry was stationed at Castillo El Morro Castle, (then part of an Army base called Fort Brooke), overlooking San Juan Bay.
However, the Government of the United States in Washington, D.C. insisted on its neutral right to send ships to Europe and that therefore, the German U-boats must refrain from attacking them.
Odenwald, and unarmed Hamburg America Line cargo liner, tried to leave San Juan bay without permission from the Collector of Customs.
[18] Marxuach fired a shot from a gun in the Santa Rosa battery of El Morro, in what is considered to be the first shot of World War I fired by the regular armed forces of the United States against any ship flying the colors of the Central Powers,[25] forcing Odenwald to stop and to return to port.
Southern politicians were alarmed of the idea of having armed African-Americans in the south and believed that Puerto Ricans of mixed race, who did not understand their racial policies, would only add to their problems.
[6] Prior to the Jones-Shafroth Act, Puerto Ricans in the mainland United States as all other non-citizens, who were permanent residents were required to register with the Selective Service System by law and could be drafted.
"El Negro," was Puerto Rico's first professional boxer to gain international recognition and served as a boxing instructor to the servicemen at the camp.
[32] On June 2, 1918, the SM U-151, the first German U-boat to operate in US territory in World War I, sank six ships and damaged two others off the coast of New Jersey in the space of a few hours in what is known by historians as "Black Sunday".
[35] In 1899, the company converted Carolina into a passenger ship, providing services between San Juan, Puerto Rico, Havana, Cuba and New York City.
Lt. Riefkohl, who was also the first Puerto Rican to graduate from the United States Naval Academy, served as a Rear Admiral in World War II.
[38] In 1918, a US Employment Service Bulletin estimated that 75,000 unemployed laborers in Puerto Rico were available for work in the United States.
The War Department agreed to transport workers to labor camps in the United States where they would be housed and fed while working on government construction contracts at defense plants and military bases located mostly in Louisiana, North and South Carolina and Georgia.
[40] By 1918, the Army realized that there was a shortage of physicians specializing in anesthesia, a low salary specialty required in the military operating rooms.
Even though she was not an active member of the military, Dr. Piñero entered service with the US Army Medical Corps and was assigned to the San Juan base hospital where she worked as an anesthesiologist during the mornings and in the laboratory during the afternoons.
Dr. Piñero and four male colleagues received orders to open a 400-bed hospital in Ponce, Puerto Rico, to care for the patients who had been infected with the influenza or as it was also known "the Swine Flu".
The Swine Flu had swept through Army camps and training posts around the world, infecting one quarter of all soldiers and killing more than 55,000 American troops.
[43] First Lieutenant Pedro Del Valle, the first Hispanic to reach the rank of Lieutenant General in the Marine Corps and who in World War II would play an instrumental role in seizures of Guadalcanal and Okinawa, commanded the Marine detachment on board the USS Texas (BB-35) in the North Atlantic during World War I.
The municipality of Sabana Grande claims that Ángel Gregorio Martínez, one of its native sons, was the first to perish in that conflict, and the town named one of its main thoroughfares after him.
[48] Also, according to the municipality of Arecibo, native born Mario Cesar Miranda Cruz, died during combat in France and is buried in San Juan.
[52][53] Some of the Puerto Ricans who served in World War I continued in the military and led distinguished careers, among them: Teófilo Marxuach, who retired in 1922 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, as a civilian worked as a civil engineer for the Department of Interior,[54] Luis R. Esteves, who founded the Puerto Rico National Guard and retired in 1957 with the rank of Major General,[55] Virgilio N. Cordero, the Battalion Commander of the 31st Infantry Regimentwho was named Regimental Commander of the 52nd Infantry Regiment of the new Filipino Army, thus becoming the first Puerto Rican to command a Filipino Army regiment.
[56][57] Virgil R. Miller, who led the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II, the most decorated unit in US military history.
Upon the outbreak of World War II, Aviles received a war-time promotion to Chief Warrant Officer (November 27, 1944), thus becoming the first Hispanic American to reach that level as well.
