A Small Blue Flower, a Lasting Promise: The Origins of Forget-Me-Not Drives

When the fighting of World War I ended in November 1918, parades and cheers welcomed American troops back home. Yet once the confetti was swept from the streets, a harsh reality remained for hundreds of thousands of returning service members. The war had introduced modern industrial weapons, including poison gas, heavy artillery, and machine guns, leaving an unprecedented number of soldiers with permanent injuries, respiratory illnesses, or psychological trauma. At the time, the federal government was unprepared to handle this massive crisis. Hospital beds were scarce, disability benefits were tangled in confusing paperwork, and job training programs barely existed. Many wounded veterans found themselves unable to return to their old jobs and struggled to support their families.

In 1920, a group of wounded veterans met in Cincinnati, Ohio, led by Judge Robert S. Marx, an army captain who had been severely injured just hours before the war ended. Together, they founded the Disabled American Veterans of the World War—known today as DAV—to give injured service members a unified voice. Their goal was practical and urgent: to help veterans navigate government agencies and secure medical care, physical rehabilitation, vocational training, and steady employment. However, running an organization and assisting struggling families required funding, and public attention was already drifting away from the war.