Ernest Hemmingway

It was on this day in 1917 that the United States declared war against Germany and entered WWI. A few days earlier, President Woodrow Wilson had informed Congress that "the world must be made safe for democracy."

One of the Americans who went over to fight was 18-year-old Ernest Hemingway, who worked as an ambulance driver. He sent his parents a letter from Milan in 1918, a few months after being struck by a mortar shell and wounded while handing out chocolate to Italian soldiers in a dugout. In his letter, he said: "It does give you an awfully satisfactory feeling to be wounded. It's getting beaten up in a good cause. ... And how much better to die in all the happy period of undisillusioned youth, to go out in a blaze of light, than to have your body worn out and old and illusions shattered. So, dear old family, don't ever worry about me! It isn't bad to be wounded: I know, because I've experienced it. And if I die, I'm lucky. Does all that sound like the crazy, wild kid you sent out to learn about the world a year ago? It is a great old world, though, and I've always had a good time and the odds are all in favor of coming back to the old place. But I thought I'd tell you how I felt about it. Now I'll write you a nice, cheery, bunky letter in about a week, so don't get low over this one. I love you all. Ernie."
The Writer's Almanac