In 1916, Omaha native Jarvis Offutt entered officer training at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. The United States had not yet entered World War I, but tensions were simmering at home and exploding abroad. No doubt the Offutt family was carefully following news of the Great War. No doubt they wondered whether America would be pulled in. Jarvis asked to be transferred to aviation, and by the end of the year, he received his commission as a First Lieutenant in the Aviation Section, United States Signal Corps.