H.R. No. 2711
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, On November 11, 2018, this nation is commemorating
the centennial of the end of World War I, one of the greatest
conflicts in human history, and one in which Texans distinguished
themselves through their patriotism, courage, and dedication to
duty; and
WHEREAS, Between 1914 and 1918, the Allied Powers, ultimately
composed chiefly of the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the
United States, engaged in a titanic struggle against the Central
Powers, whose members included Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria,
and the Ottoman Empire; in Europe, where most of the fighting took
place, combat soon devolved into the brutal stalemate of trench
warfare, subjecting troops on both sides to months on end of mud and
disease, as they faced each other across the blasted ground between
the trenches known as "No Man's Land"; and
WHEREAS, World War I was the first conflict to see the
widespread use of machine guns, combat aircraft, tanks, submarines,
and biological and chemical weapons; especially in the early years
of the war, the deadly combination of 20th-century technology and
19th-century military tactics resulted in unprecedented carnage;
battles dragged on for months, with the Battle of the Somme, between
July and November 1916, claiming more than 1.5 million men killed or
wounded; and
WHEREAS, The United States entered World War I in April 1917,
and the State of Texas played a significant role in the American war
effort; members of the Texas National Guard formed the core of the
famed 36th Infantry Division, also known as the Texas Division,
which fought in the Meuse-Argonne offensive in October 1918; nearly
200,000 Texans took part in the war, including 450 Texas women who
served as nurses, and many other Americans received their training
in the Lone Star State; a number of present-day airports across
Texas were originally established as training fields for World War
I aviators; and
WHEREAS, By the end of the war on November 11, 1918, four
million Americans had served in the victorious Allied war effort,
and more than 116,700 had made the ultimate sacrifice, including
over 5,000 Texans; today, their service is honored by memorials
across the state and by the World War I monument on the grounds of
the State Capitol; a particularly special memorial is the "Merci
Boxcar" at Camp Mabry in Austin, one of 49 railway cars presented to
each American state and, jointly, to the District of Columbia and
the territory of Hawaii, by France in 1949, in gratitude for the
provision of relief supplies after World War II and for the service
of Americans on French soil in World Wars I and II; such boxcars
were well-known to the many American veterans of both wars who rode
in them for as long as a week at a time, as they traveled to or from
the battlefront; and
WHEREAS, The effects of the Great War were far reaching;
roughly 15 to 18 million people perished during the conflict,
including as many as 8 million civilians; in addition, the defeat of
the Central Powers resulted in the dismantling of the German,
Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires, while the Russian Empire
dissolved with the overthrow of the czar in 1917, during a
revolution stoked, in part, by that country's disastrous wartime
experience; the end of the war also saw the debut of the United
States as a global power, one whose citizen-soldiers had answered
the call to duty in defense of the principles of liberty,
self-determination, and a just peace; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 85th Texas
Legislature hereby commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of
World War I.
Price
______________________________
Speaker of the House
I certify that H.R. No. 2711 was adopted by the House on May
29, 2017, by a non-record vote.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House