Epidemiologists have traced the likely origin of the Influenza Pandemic to the Ft. Riley, KS area in 1917. From there, it was spread throughout the US and overseas as troops were trained and deployed. News of the extent of the pandemic were suppressed both here and overseas for what we would now call “National Security” purposes. It wasn’t until it had spread to a neutral country, Spain, that the news began to spread. The pandemic has been known ever since as the “Spanish Flu”.
Modern Medicine was still in its infancy at the time. Young doctors, trained in modern methods, were drafted and sent overseas. The result was that the flu hit the US especially hard.
Got this from a wonderful book, “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History”.
Interesting...1917 was the year that Selfridge Field became an active military airfield. One of the first in the US.