warpedskydiver 0 #1 February 28, 2011 Last living US WWI vet dies in W. Va. at age 110 FILE -- In a May 26, 2008 file photo Frank Buckles receives an American flag during Memori... By VICKI SMITH, AP Mon Feb 28, 4:35 AM EST He was repeatedly rejected by military recruiters and got into uniform at 16 after lying about his age. But Frank Buckles would later become the last surviving U.S. veteran of World War I. Buckles, who also survived being a civilian POW in the Philippines in World War II, died of natural causes Sunday at his home in Charles Town, biographer and family spokesman David DeJonge said in a statement. He was 110. Buckles had been advocating for a national memorial honoring veterans of the Great War in the nation's capital. When asked in February 2008 how it felt to be the last of his kind, he said simply, "I realized that somebody had to be, and it was me." And he told The Associated Press he would have done it all over again, "without a doubt." On Nov. 11, 2008, the 90th anniversary of the end of the war, Buckles attended a ceremony at the grave of World War I Gen. John Pershing in Arlington National Cemetery. He was back in Washington a year later to endorse a proposal to rededicate the existing World War I memorial on the National Mall as the official National World War I Memorial. He told a Senate panel it was "an excellent idea." The memorial was originally built to honor District of Columbia's war dead. Born in Missouri in 1901 and raised in Oklahoma, Buckles visited a string of military recruiters after the United States entered the "war to end all wars" in April 1917. He was repeatedly rejected before convincing an Army captain he was 18. He was actually 16 1/2. "A boy of (that age), he's not afraid of anything. He wants to get in there," Buckles said. Details for services and arrangements will be announced later this week. The family asks that donations be made to the National World War One Legacy Project. The project is managed by the nonprofit Survivor Quest and will educate students about Buckles and WWI through a documentary and traveling educational exhibition. More than 4.7 million people joined the U.S. military from 1917-18. As of spring 2007, only three were still alive, according to a tally by the Department of Veterans Affairs: Buckles, J. Russell Coffey of Ohio and Harry Richard Landis of Florida. The dwindling roster prompted a flurry of public interest, and Buckles went to Washington in May 2007 to serve as grand marshal of the national Memorial Day parade. Coffey died Dec. 20, 2007, at age 109, while Landis died Feb. 4, 2008, at 108. Unlike Buckles, those two men were still in basic training in the United States when the war ended and did not make it overseas. The last known Canadian veteran of the war, John Babcock of Spokane, Wash., died in February 2010. There are no French or German veterans of the war left alive. Buckles served in England and France, working mainly as a driver and a warehouse clerk. The fact he did not see combat didn't diminish his service, he said: "Didn't I make every effort?" An eager student of culture and language, he used his off-duty hours to learn German, visit cathedrals, museums and tombs, and bicycle in the French countryside. After Armistice Day, Buckles helped return prisoners of war to Germany. He returned to the United States in January 1920. Buckles returned to Oklahoma for a while, then moved to Canada, where he worked a series of jobs before heading for New York City. There, he again took advantage of free museums, worked out at the YMCA, and landed jobs in banking and advertising. But it was the shipping industry that suited him best, and he worked around the world for the White Star Line Steamship Co. and W.R. Grace & Co. In 1941, while on business in the Philippines, Buckles was captured by the Japanese. He spent more than three years in prison camps. "I was never actually looking for adventure," Buckles once said. "It just came to me." He married in 1946 and moved to his farm in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle in 1954, where he and wife Audrey raised their daughter, Susannah Flanagan. Audrey Buckles died in 1999. In spring 2007, Buckles told the AP of the trouble he went through to get into the military. "I went to the state fair up in Wichita, Kansas, and while there, went to the recruiting station for the Marine Corps," he said. "The nice Marine sergeant said I was too young when I gave my age as 18, said I had to be 21." Buckles returned a week later. "I went back to the recruiting sergeant, and this time I was 21," he said with a grin. "I passed the inspection ... but he told me I just wasn't heavy enough." Then he tried the Navy, whose recruiter told Buckles he was flat-footed. Buckles wouldn't quit. In Oklahoma City, an Army captain demanded a birth certificate. "I told him birth certificates were not made in Missouri when I was born, that the record was in a family Bible. I said, 'You don't want me to bring the family Bible down, do you?'" Buckles said with a laugh. "He said, 'OK, we'll take you.'" He enlisted Aug. 14, 1917, serial number 15577. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
warpedskydiver 0 #2 February 28, 2011 As with most wars, as soon at the last man in in his grave, people forget and allow the world to make the same mistakes. We should never forget... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mutumbo 0 #3 February 28, 2011 Quote As with most wars, as soon at the last man in in his grave, people forget and allow the world to make the same mistakes. We should never forget... yeah because noone remembers the civil and revolutionary wars (j/k, i get your point.)Thanatos340(on landing rounds)-- Landing procedure: Hand all the way up, Feet and Knees Together and PLF soon as you get bitch slapped by a planet. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tink1717 2 #4 February 28, 2011 QuoteLast living US WWI vet dies in W. Va. at age 110 And with him the last living memory of the war. It's a shame that there is no project to preserve these memories and stories. I'f I had the resources, I'd do it in a minute.Skydivers don't knock on Death's door. They ring the bell and runaway... It really pisses him off. -The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!) AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS#8808 Swooo 1717 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skybill 19 #5 February 28, 2011 Quote Quote As with most wars, as soon at the last man in in his grave, people forget and allow the world to make the same mistakes. We should never forget... yeah because noone remembers the civil and revolutionary wars (j/k, i get your point.) Hi M-U, The Rev war was a while ago!! As for the Civil war, the last soldier of that war died in the mid 50's. He was a Confederate soldier. The last Union soldier died not long before he did. Then President Eisenhower had the Confederate soldier in his Confederate uniform lie in state in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington. Photos were in Life mag. I remember, I was about 10 years old or so at the time he died.SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
waveoff5500 0 #6 February 28, 2011 QuoteAnd with him the last living memory of the war. It's a shame that there is no project to preserve these memories and stories. I'f I had the resources, I'd do it in a minute. not necessarily, what about the people that lived through the times of the war? people whose brothers fathers etc went to war. im sure there are still people alive that can remember that. p"its just a normal day at the dropzone until its not" 1653 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PiLFy 0 #7 February 28, 2011 QuoteQuoteLast living US WWI vet dies in W. Va. at age 110 And with him the last living memory of the war. It's a shame that there is no project to preserve these memories and stories. I'f I had the resources, I'd do it in a minute. PSST: http://www.theworldwar.org/s/110/new/index_community.aspx http://www.firstworldwar.com/ The 2nd site is loaded w/first-person accounts. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bertt 0 #8 February 28, 2011 Gone but not forgotten. I'm reading a book about Theodore Roosevelt. It goes into great detail about the personalities and politics of the world during his time. In the book, Woodrow Wilson has just been elected president, so the Great War is just around the corner. My grandfather was in the army during WW I, but he didn't go overseas. He was good with numbers, so he spent the entire war as a clerk at a base in New Jersey.You don't have to outrun the bear. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimjumper 25 #9 March 1, 2011 I saw a member of my coin club at a coin show a couple of weeks ago, looking through old currency notes. He showed me a 1942 Phillipines note and asked for my opinion on condition. When I expressed interest that he might have been a WWII veteran based on the note he was examining, He said "No, But my son was!" He is 93 and still vollunteers as a Docent at our local Paleontology Museum. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gawain 0 #10 March 1, 2011 I'm sad to read of his passing, but we could only keep him for so long. Fare well Buckles! Currahee! So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright 'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life Make light! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
