Obituaries--Frank Buckles

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.

The Last American World War I

veteran, Frank Buckles, paid a visit to the White House.




Buckles is 107 years old and sharp as a tack.

Frank Buckles

describes what it was like to serve in World War I.

Buckles, 106, is one of only three surviving American World War I veterans and the youngest.

Snip:

Besides Buckles, the VA has identified the only other living World War I veterans as Harry Landis, a 107-year-old living in Sun City Center, Fla., and Russell Coffey, a 108-year-old in North Baltimore, Ohio.

After the last Navy veteran and the last American woman to serve in World War I died days apart in March, the VA made a public appeal to identify any other veterans of the war, but found no others, said VA spokesman Matt Burns.

...

Canada and Britain will mark the end of a generation with a tribute after the last World War I veteran dies. There are four or five living veterans in Britain and at least one in Canada, according to historians. In the U.S., the VA and historians have only begun talking about how to commemorate World War I veterans. Paul said the story of "the war to end all wars" has been eclipsed by the "Greatest Generation" of Americans who fought in World War II.