America's last World War I veteran, Frank Buckles, died yesterday. Buckles lived to the impressive age of 110, just having had a birthday on the first of this month. He was one of only three surviving WWI veterans in the entire world.
New York Times obituary:
The Department of Veterans Affairs said he would be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
Sought out for interviews in his final years, Mr. Buckles told of witnessing a ceremony involving British veterans of the Crimean War, fought in the 1850s, when he was stationed in England before heading to France. He remembered chatting with Gen. John J. Pershing, the commander of American troops in World War I, at an event in Oklahoma City soon after the war’s end.
And he proudly held a sepia-toned photograph of himself in his doughboy uniform when he was interviewed by USA Today in 2007. “I was a snappy soldier,” he said. “All gung-ho.”
Two who served for Britain, Claude Choules, who lives in Australia, and Florence Green, who lives in England, are the last two surviving veterans of World War I.
President Obama issued a proclamation noting Buckles' passing.
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