I found a bracelet in a coin jar previously owned by my recently passed grandfather. It is made out of 3 French coins that were engraved on the back. The engravings list those locations, the years 1918-1919, and the words "US Army" and "Army of Occupation." From those years, I can assume that this is from WWI but I want to know what the US had to do with these events and what the effect was on the war.
Those were the places where U.S. soldiers were deployed during WWI. Gen. "Black Jack" Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force, fought hard to control the U.S. forces as a single unit. British and French commanders, starting with the entry of the United States into the war in 1917, wanted to distributed Americans across the line in small groups to bolster understrength French and British units.
Instead, Pershing got his way.
Some U.S. soldiers were sent to Russia to fight the Bolsheviks, some were sent to Italy, but the vast majority served in northeastern France. After the armistice of November 1918, American soldiers occupied portions of Germany around the city of Koblenz, between Luxembourg and the Rhine River. Eight divisions split into four corps were involved.
These soldiers served until the Paris Peace Conference concluded in May 1919, and they were rapidly returned home. The last American soldiers didn't leave Germany, however, until 1923.