Frank Buckles, The Last Living U.S. World War I Veteran Dies at 110

[Sabre86]

CNN:

Washington (CNN) -- Frank Buckles, the last living U.S. World War I veteran, has died, a spokesman for his family said Sunday. He was 110.

Buckles "died peacefully in his home of natural causes" early Sunday morning, the family said in a statement sent to CNN late Sunday by spokesman David DeJonge.

Buckles marked his 110th birthday on February 1, but his family had earlier told CNN he had slowed considerably since last fall, according his daughter Susannah Buckles Flanagan, who lives at the family home near Charles Town, West Virginia.

Buckles, who served as a U.S. Army ambulance driver in Europe during what became known as the "Great War," rose to the rank of corporal before the war ended. He came to prominence in recent years, in part because of the work of DeJonge, a Michigan portrait photographer who had undertaken a project to document the last surviving veterans of that war.

[pollyannaish]

God bless you Mr. Buckles. Thank you for your service and rest in peace.

[Sabre86]

This leaves only two WWI veterans of any nation still alive.

 

Claude Choules, Royal Navy

Florence Green, Royal Air Force/Women's Royal Air Force

[Chickadee]

Wonderful story, Sabre86. War has been such a maligned topic since the 60's I could imagine not much is being taught in our schools about The Great War.

 

My father-in-law was a drill sergeant in the last years of WWI. He was very proud of that. About 55 years after the fact, he was given retroactive compensation for having lost the use of his speaking voice as that drill sergeant. He could basically only whisper, but we just called him soft spoken. My understanding of how the compensation came about is that an Army clerk found the mistake in some file and contacted him. He did not want the money and did his best to reject it, but the government insisted he take it. He bought a new car and a camping trailer with the money, but we were not to talk about it as he was embarrassed. He was a great man. I believe we still have his uniform jacket and hat packed away, and also a picture or two. Gone but not forgotten by any means!

[Valin]

Wonderful story, Sabre86. War has been such a maligned topic since the 60's I could imagine not much is being taught in our schools about The Great War.

 

My father-in-law was a drill sergeant in the last years of WWI. He was very proud of that. About 55 years after the fact, he was given retroactive compensation for having lost the use of his speaking voice as that drill sergeant. He could basically only whisper, but we just called him soft spoken. My understanding of how the compensation came about is that an Army clerk found the mistake in some file and contacted him. He did not want the money and did his best to reject it, but the government insisted he take it. He bought a new car and a camping trailer with the money, but we were not to talk about it as he was embarrassed. He was a great man. I believe we still have his uniform jacket and hat packed away, and also a picture or two. Gone but not forgotten by any means!

 

May I suggest First World War by John Keegan

 

"Amazon.com Review

Despite the avalanche of books written about the First World War in recent years, there have been comparatively few books that deliver a comprehensive account of the war and its campaigns from start to finish. The First World War fills the gap superbly. As readers familiar with Keegan's previous books (including The Second World War and Six Armies in Normandy) know, he's a historian of the old school. He has no earth-shattering new theories to challenge the status quo, no first-person accounts to tug on the emotions--what he does have, though, is a gift for talking the lay person through the twists and turns of a complex narrative in a way that is never less than accessible or engaging.

 

Keegan never tries to ram his learning down your throat. Where other authors have struggled to explain how Britain could ever allow itself to be dragged into such a war in 1914, Keegan keeps his account practical. The level of communications that we enjoy today just didn't exist then, and so it was much harder to keep track of what was going on. By the time a message had finally reached the person in question, the situation may have changed out of all recognition. Keegan applies this same "cock-up" theory of history to the rest of the war, principally the three great disasters at Gallipoli, the Somme, and Passchendaele. The generals didn't send all those troops to their deaths deliberately, Keegan argues; they did it out of incompetence and ineptitude, and because they had no idea of what was actually going on at the front.

 

While The First World War is not afraid to point the finger at those generals who deserve it, even Keegan has to admit he doesn't have all the answers. If it all seems so obviously futile and such a massive waste of life now, he asks, how could it have seemed worthwhile back then? Why did so many people carry on, knowing they would die? Why, indeed. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk "

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_roMBz-R50

 

I think two of reasons WWI doesn't get the play here is 1. America was only in it a short while & 2. It has been overshadowed by WWII.

 

 

War has been such a maligned topic since the 60's

 

[Casino67]

Not a big fan of Wikileaks, but they have an interesting bio on Mr. Buckles here.

 

He was an interesting man.