Brothers at War

At 

  the beginning of the First World War there was much sympathy in America 

  for the French, British and Russians against the Germans, Austrians and 

  Turks. But the United States Neutralization Act made it a felony for 

  citizens to support either the Allies or the Huns except for 

  humanitarian assistance to either side. To avoid the proscriptions of 

  the Neutralization Act many wealthy, prominent Americans bought 

  ambulances for the French Army and recruited college students from the 

  nation's top colleges and prep schools to man them. Jack and Alan 

  Nichols lived at home with their parents Walter Hammond Nichols and 

  Eleanor C. Nichols in the small town of Palo Alto, California, and were 

  students at Stanford just across the then street. Both were avid pro 

  "Allies". Alan, a Junior at Stanford, was older and left for France 

  first while Jack, a Freshman, followed some months later. For two small 

  town young teenage boys who had never left Palo Alto, crossing the 

  country for a ship to France was in itself an extraordinary adventure. 

  They both joined the French Army Ambulance Corps at first. Once they 

  were in France with the French Army the American Neutralization Act no 

  longer applied nor its prohibition of participation on either side of 

  the conflict. Alan later transferred to the French Army Air Corps and, 

  after the U.S. joined the fight on the Allies side, Jack to the American 

  Tank Corps. Both brothers functioned as "junior journalists." Alan wrote 

  long letters from France to his father about his experiences which were 

  then published by the Palo Alto Times from its "foreign corespondent." 

  They were then collected, edited and appeared as Letters Home: From the 

  Lafayette Flying Corps. Jack wrote his own book Two Years: World War I 

  Experiences in France. This book is now combined with a selection of 

  Alan's letters and the collaborative effort titled Brothers At War. It 

  is the story of their war lives serving, each in his own different way, 

  the French army, but with shockingly different endings.