The 102nd Engineers were mustered into Federal Service as a part of the 27th Infantry Division in July of 1917, following the entry of the United States into World War I.

In September 1917, the 27th Division set out for combat training with the help of experienced British officers at Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina. The 102nd Engineers trained in Camouflage School, in which instructors emphasized the importance of selecting positions where terrain offered natural cover and conferred invisibility on the troops. In training, the 102nd Engineers learned sapping, bombing, and construction of field fortifications. They practiced building roads and bridges around the camp and dug a mock trench system. Detachments from the 102nd Engineers built pontoon bridges over a small lake in Whitney, South Carolina and, in March 1918, Company B of the 102nd Engineers departed to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, to construct railroad bridges.

On May 17, 1918, the 102nd Engineers departed for Europe from Newport News, Virginia, aboard the USS Pocahontas, arriving at St. Nazaire on May 30. The battalion then boarded a train for Noyelle. In early July, the 27th Division, with the 102nd Engineers, took up positions to guard against a potential German assault on the East Poperinghe Line. Exposed to enemy aviation, balloon surveillance, and artillery fire, the 102nd Engineers suffered their first combat casualty on July 13; Private Robert Friedman of Company A was killed by an artillery shell and several other men were wounded.

The 102nd Engineers, along with the 27th Division, were engaged in the attacks against the Hindenburg Line in September of 1918. In preparation for the offensive, the 102nd Engineers built roads leading to the front facilitating the forward movement of tanks and artillery. A detachment from the 102nd Engineers built shelters with stone and sheet iron to shield the 27th Division’s officers at its command post. Once the offensive began, some members of the 102nd Engineers joined British sappers in investigating captured German dugouts to remove mines and other traps.

In October, the 27th Division participated in the Allied thrust through the Somme, during which several of the Division’s infantry and machine gun battalions crossed the Le Selle river to capture German positions on a hillcrest just west of Catillon. Prior to the attack on October 19, the 102nd Engineers built foot-bridges and, once the infantry had crossed the river, pulled them across. Detachments from the 102nd Engineers also repaired a bridge that had been blown up near St. Souplet, and another detachment joined the advancing infantry to clear debris from the covered ground, making it easier for machines to traverse. The attack was successful. However, due to heavy losses, the 27th Division was placed in reserve for the remaining weeks of the war.

The 102nd Engineer Battalion suffered 63 casualties in Europe, 47 of which were in Company C. The Engineer Battalion’s 47 gas casualties occurred during the crossing of the Le Selles river and all cases were recorded as mild. The incidents likely occurred due to soldiers inhaling residual gas on debris while removing it behind the advance on October 19. Privates George Nash and James F. Sheehan of Company D, 102d Engineers were captured while acting as stretcher bearers.

Information for this summary was gathered from John F. O’Ryan’s The Story of the 27th Division.