The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: twyacht on February 28, 2011, 04:15:37 PM
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41821018/ns/us_news-life/?gt1=43001
Video at link
MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — Frank Buckles, the last surviving U.S. veteran of World War I, has died. He was 110.
Buckles, who also survived being a civilian POW in the Philippines in World War II, died peacefully of natural causes early Sunday at his home in Charles Town, biographer and family spokesman David DeJonge said in a statement. Buckles turned 110 on Feb. 1 and had been advocating for a national memorial honoring veterans of World War I in Washington, D.C.
Buckles lied about his age to join the army at age 16.The Missouri native was among nearly 5 million Americans who served in World War I in 1917 and 1918.
"I knew there'd be only one (survivor) someday. I didn't think it would be me," he was quoted as saying in recent years.
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 16½.
"A boy of (that age), he's not afraid of anything. He wants to get in there," Buckles said.
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.'"
(http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k78/DelanieOh/USflaghalf-mast.jpg)
RIP Frank Buckles. Thank you for your service, generation, the millions that were with you, and the legacy we will uphold.
God Speed, Rest In Peace.
A True Countryman, Veteran, and the "Last".
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SALUTE
Damn I hate the last of anything going away, except rattle snakes.
My late Uncle, joined the navy at 14, lost an eye at Pear Harbor, back on duty within a month, never slowed him down, his mother lied for him as they had 12 mouths to feed.
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I had two Uncles in the "War to end all Wars." Both were nearly 80 when they left us in the late 1970's. Frank passed them up by a few years.
In the memory of my loved ones, Frank Buckle, thank you for your honorable and faithful service!
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My grandpa helped earn the title devil dog in that war for the leather necks.