Editing Fort Riley (section)

===World War I===
[[Image:CampFunstonKS-InfluenzaHospital.jpg|thumb|Soldiers from Fort Riley ill with Spanish influenza at a hospital ward at [[Camp Funston]], Kansas, in 1918.]]
America's entry into [[World War I]] resulted in many changes at Fort Riley. Facilities were greatly expanded, and a [[cantonment]] named [[Camp Funston]] was built 5 miles (8&nbsp;km) east of the permanent post during the summer and fall of 1917. This training site was one of 16 across the country and could accommodate from 30,000 to 50,000 men.<ref name="History" />

The first division to train at Camp Funston, the 89th, sailed for France in the spring of 1918. The 10th Division also received training at Funston, but the armistice came before the unit was sent overseas. The camp was commanded by Major General [[Leonard Wood]]. A Military Officers Training Camp was established in the Camp Whitside area to train doctors and other medical personnel.<ref name="History" />

====Spanish flu====
The earliest suspected cases of what would later believed to be the [[Spanish flu]] were reported in [[Haskell County, Kansas]] in January and February 1918. Local physician [[Loring Miner]] observed an unusually severe outbreak of influenza and alerted the editors of the [[U.S. Public Health Service]]'s academic journal ''[[Public Health Reports]]''.<ref name="Barry 2004">{{cite book |last=Barry |first=John |title=The Great Influenza |publisher=Viking Adult |publication-place=New York |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-670-89473-4}}</ref><ref name="pmid14733617">{{cite journal |vauthors=Barry JM |title=The site of origin of the 1918 influenza pandemic and its public health implications |journal=Journal of Translational Medicine |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=3 |date=January 2004 |pmid=14733617 |pmc=340389 |doi=10.1186/1479-5876-2-3 |doi-access=free |url=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=1918 Flu (Spanish flu epidemic)|url=http://www.avian-bird-flu.info/spanishfluepidemic1918.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080521071645/http://www.avian-bird-flu.info/spanishfluepidemic1918.html|archive-date=May 21, 2008|website=Avian Bird Flu}}</ref><ref name="Homles">{{cite web |last=Holmes |first=Frederick |title=The Influenza Pandemic and The War |website=University of Kansas Medical Center |url=https://www.kumc.edu/school-of-medicine/academics/departments/history-and-philosophy-of-medicine/archives/wwi/essays/medicine/influenza.html |access-date=September 20, 2024 |archive-date=April 23, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240423012040/https://www.kumc.edu/school-of-medicine/academics/departments/history-and-philosophy-of-medicine/archives/wwi/essays/medicine/influenza.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Several men from Haskell County who may have been exposed to influenza then traveled to Camp Funston at Fort Riley in the following weeks.<ref name="Homles" /><ref name="Durr 2018">{{cite web |last=Durr |first=Eric |title=Flu outbreak killed 45,000 U.S. Soldiers during World War I |website=National Guard |date=August 30, 2018 |url=https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article/1616713/flu-outbreak-killed-45000-us-soldiers-during-world-war-i/ |access-date=September 2, 2024 |archive-date=September 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240902131114/https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article/1616713/flu-outbreak-killed-45000-us-soldiers-during-world-war-i/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Shortly after their arrival at Camp Funston, on either March 4 or March 11, 1918 (depending on the account), an army cook named Albert Gitchell reported sick to the infirmary with flu-like symptoms in the morning before breakfast. By midday, 107 soldiers at the camp exhibited similar symptoms, and within days, 522 men had fallen ill. This outbreak at Fort Riley was later hypothesized to be the starting point of the Spanish flu pandemic.<ref name="Spinney 2018">{{cite book |last=Spinney |first=Laura |title=Pale Rider |publisher=National Geographic Books |publication-place=London |year= | isbn=978-1-78470-240-3 |page=36}}</ref><ref name="Leonard 2020">{{cite web |last=Leonard |first=Kevin |title=During 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, truth-telling in Laurel was in short supply |website=Baltimore Sun |date=April 30, 2020 |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2020/04/30/during-1918-spanish-flu-pandemic-truth-telling-in-laurel-was-in-short-supply/ |access-date=September 2, 2024 |archive-date=September 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240902125256/https://www.baltimoresun.com/2020/04/30/during-1918-spanish-flu-pandemic-truth-telling-in-laurel-was-in-short-supply/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Harris">{{cite web |title=The 1918 Flu Pandemic |website=Origins |publisher=Ohio State University |url=https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/pandemic-flu-spanish-flu-1918-H1N1-WW1-vaccine |access-date=April 2, 2025}}</ref>