". . . Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in blood of his followers and sacrifices of his friends. Conceivably a commander may have been professionally superior. He may have given everything of his heart and mind to meet the spiritual and physical needs of his comrades. He may have written a chapter that will glow forever in the pages of military history. Still, even such a man -- if he existed -- would sadly face the facts that his honors cannot hide in his memories the crosses marking the resting places of the dead.

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.