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From
Redstate…
Our last WWI vet
passes away at age 110
Posted by bk (Profile)
Monday, February 28th
From the diaries by Bill S.
Frank Buckles, the last of the 4,734,991 Americans who served in World
War I, has passed away. When you think of most kids today, his story is
just staggering.
He was born on a Missouri farm when William McKinley was President.
When the US entered WWI in April 1917, he had turned 16 barely two
months earlier, but was determined to enlist.
After being rejected by Marine and Navy recruiters, Buckles tried the
Army. When the recruiter asked to see his birth certificate, Buckles
said Missouri didn’t keep birth records when he was born and the only
record was what was written in the family Bible.
That was good enough for the Army and he enlisted that August at age
16-1/2. He said a sergeant told him, “If you want to get to France in a
hurry, then join the ambulance service.” He did that and was on his way
to England by that December. He wanted to get closer to the fighting
and was eventually sent to France, then after the war ended he helped
bring POWs back to Germany.
After leaving the Army as a Corporal, he ended up getting a job with a
shipping company and traveling all over the world. As luck would have
it, he was in Manila when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor a few
hours before bombing and invading the Philippines. He ended up in
Japanese POW camps until 1945 when his was liberated.
He got married several years later and moved to a farm in West
Virginia, where he still drove his own car and tractor until he was
102. His wife died in 1999, the same year he was awarded the French
Legion of Honor.
In 2008 he became the oldest surviving WWI vet, which of course got him
some attention in Washington (including a visit to the White House with
George W. Bush) and beyond. George Will wrote a nice column about him.
Not everything in WV is named after Robert C. Byrd – then-Gov Joe
Manchin named a section of WV Route 9 in his honor at the time.
RIP Corporal Buckles!
Read it at Redstate
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