Michael, Berkeley S.

Berkeley Strickland Michael was born September 27, 1896, to James Strickland Michael and Alice Smith Michael of Sioux City, Iowa.  Michael’s father served as a representative in the General Assembly of the Iowa Legislature from 1915-1917.

While studying at Princeton University in 1917, Berkeley Michael volunteered with the American Field Service, a voluntary ambulance and camion organization serving alongside the French military, for a period of 6 months between March to October 1917. Michael first arrived in Vigo, Spain, aboard the Alphonso XII on March 8, 1917, and was assigned to Section Sanitaire [Etats-] Unis (SSU) 3.  SSU 3 had been organized in Paris in April 1915, but following its successful performance in the mountains of Alsace, was moved by request of the French Government to the Balkans with the  Armée d’Orient in autumn of 1916. When Michael arrived in Europe, SSU 3 was assigned to the 57th Division d’Infanterie of the Armée d’Orient, which fought along the Macedonian front.  The unit was then assigned to the Division Provisoire en Grèce between June-July, 1917, the 2nd Division Serbe between July-August 1917, and the 156th Division d’Infanterie of the Armée d’Orient from August to October 1917.

When the United States (U.S.) entered the war in 1917, AFS was slowly absorbed into the U.S. Army and ceased to exist as an independent organization. Because of this, SSU 3 returned to France and was dissolved in October 1917. Michael enlisted then in the U.S. Aviation division of the U.S. Army (part of the American Expeditionary Forces) and became a 2nd Lieutenant.

Upon his return to the United States after the war, Michael completed his degree and graduated from Princeton in 1918. He returned to Iowa to work for the Sioux City Seed Company, and eventually became owner and president of his own wholesale seed & nursery business. Michael married Helen Magoun on August 6, 1919. The couple had two children, Janice (b. 1922) and James (b. 1932).

[Bio courtesy of AFS Archives, New York]

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