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| General Pershing salutes New York |
"The Heart of New York goes out to you," wrote mayor John F. Hylan in an "air letter" to General John J. Pershing (1860-1948) on September 7, 1919. The letter was dispatched from Manhattan by hydroplane and dropped
aboard the SS Leviathan during its final days at sea. The ship was bringing the general home.
General Pershing had commanded the American Expeditionary Forces
in France during World War I. He
left the United States in June 1917,
just months after the U.S. declared war against Germany on April 6,
1917. He would not return for more than two years.
