white is right
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Aside from being in the wheel chair he looks pretty damn good.....
Last Surviving WWI Veterans
- Thread starter Don Wassall
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"Paul Strauss, a District of Columbia politician who advocates giving D.C. citizens a vote in Congress, also objected to a national takeover of the local monument, saying it "diminishes an already disenfranchised population."
In other words, they want memorials for Martin Luther King and Malcolm X but not for the whites who died in battle and actually did something for thier country.
In other words, they want memorials for Martin Luther King and Malcolm X but not for the whites who died in battle and actually did something for thier country.
Colonel_Reb
Hall of Famer
That's what I was thinking too, Liverlips.
DixieDestroyer
Hall of Famer
LL, good point indeed. I'm sure the cultural Marxists don't like the emphasis on America's Founding Fathers...especially them being White Christians!
Frank Buckles is a living legend & history lesson. I'd love to sit down & talk to such a life-learned gentlemen. Imagine the innumerous things he's done & seen in his 108+ years. His life and longevity are just amazing!
ABC's Person of the Week - Last WWI Vet, Frank BucklesEdited by: DixieDestroyer
Frank Buckles is a living legend & history lesson. I'd love to sit down & talk to such a life-learned gentlemen. Imagine the innumerous things he's done & seen in his 108+ years. His life and longevity are just amazing!
ABC's Person of the Week - Last WWI Vet, Frank BucklesEdited by: DixieDestroyer
And then there were none. . .
Last living US WWI vet dies in W. Va. at age 110
<DIV =byline><CITE =vcard>By VICKI SMITH, Associated Press Vicki Smith, Associated Press </CITE>â€" <ABBR =timedate title=2011-02-28T01:35:32-0800>MonFeb28, 4:35amET</ABBR>
<DIV =yn-story- _yuid="yui_3_1_1_4_129889765248111">
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. â€" 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.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110228/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_last_wwi_veteran
Last living US WWI vet dies in W. Va. at age 110
<DIV =byline><CITE =vcard>By VICKI SMITH, Associated Press Vicki Smith, Associated Press </CITE>â€" <ABBR =timedate title=2011-02-28T01:35:32-0800>MonFeb28, 4:35amET</ABBR>
<DIV =yn-story- _yuid="yui_3_1_1_4_129889765248111">
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. â€" 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.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110228/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_last_wwi_veteran
white is right
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Sad news. As of today there are just two known living WWI veterans in the world. Both are natives of Great Britain. It seems like these veterans are pretty humble and are always positive about life. I started thinking about this today, but WWII veterans are now starting to dwindle pretty badly in another 25 years or so we will be seeing similar stories to this.
Colonel_Reb
Hall of Famer
Strange that this happens now. I was just talking to my wife about the few WWI vets still alive yesterday. Sad to hear that the last U.S. vet has passed. Talking about WWII vets dying off, 10 years ago I knew about 8-10 of them, including my maternal grandfather. All those men are dead now. The last one of them died this past summer. The ranks are definitely thinning.
white is right
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Yes the older veterans from WWII are now around 100 years old. My paternal grandfather and his brothers all served in the Wermacht in WWII and all passed away 30+ years ago and their younger sister who lived be about 96 died about 2 years ago.
DixieDestroyer
Hall of Famer
Sad to see Mr.Buckles (finally) pass. He was a living piece of American history. I shutter to think how the Republic has changed (for the worst) from Mr.Buckles' heyday to now.
white is right
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Well if the historians are accurate we are now down to one known living vet of WWI. I suspect the Georgian government will be trumpeting a living vet for the next 50 years or so...
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/05/05/last-wwi-combat-vet-claude-choules-dies-aged-110
Colonel_Reb
Hall of Famer
Just saw something about this in the news. Mr. Choules was the last combat veteran of WWI. Sad news.
DixieDestroyer
Hall of Famer
These gentlemen are some of the last of a dying breed of men who knew how things should be in society. Compared to our modern, cultmarx tainted, limpwristed world, the earlier years & times of these men seems like an ancient utopia.
Edited by: DixieDestroyer
Edited by: DixieDestroyer