It was mid-September 1915, when Second Lieutenant Dwight D. Eisenhower left Abilene to join the 19th Infantry at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. In the next three and one-half years, he would serve at eight different military posts, marry, become a father, and experience the Great War from stateside.

Eisenhower's formative years

Dwight D. Eisenhower’s formative years were spent in the small town of Abilene, Kansas, and were among the most important of his life. For it was in Abilene that the boy who would grow up to become General of the Army and the thirty-fourth President of the United States developed the skills and first displayed the character that would see him and the nation through some of the most perilous times the world has ever known.