Last living U.S. World War I veteran dies

[UrbScotty]

Source: 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.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/27/wwi.veteran.death/

[sakabatou]

1. What a long life he lived.

[LiberalAndProud]

2. Odd how many wars he lived to see, considering that he fought in the war

to end all wars.


So it goes.

[krispos42]

3. .

[BOHICA12]

4. Grandpa would have been 111...

but he spent being 17 & 18 in the trenches of France. A group made was never made of sterner stuff! May they all - Allied & Axis & non-combatants rest in peace.

[ronnie624]

15. My grandpa also fought in the trenches in France at about the same age.

Perhaps they met. :)

[RandySF]

5. I personally knew a WWI vet

He was in the Canadian Army, though. He received a minor injury from an artillery shell.

[old mark]

9. When I was a little kid, an friends granddad was a WWI vet. I don't remember the names

of either one, but he loved to tell us stories for hours...this was in the 1950's, I believe...

It is amazing that some of the consequences of the Great War are still with us and influence our daily lives today...

I wonder if we actually learned anything from it.

mark

[Rhiannon12866]

10. I did, too.

He was pretty much my step-grandfather, wonderful man, a true liberal and an ordained minister, worked for integration in the South during the '60s and preached peace and tolerance. He was a contentious objector during WWI, so he drove an ambulance, too. He died on Christmas Eve in 1998 at 101. I miss him still, including his wisdom about politics. He followed it very closely and sure had a lot of knowledge to share. *sigh* :hi:

[Withywindle]

13. I did too.

My great-grandfather. He passed away in the 80s, but I was a teenager by then, and I'd had the privilege of getting to know him and my great-grandmother and hearing their stories through my childhood.

[AngryAmish]

30. Mr. Rudd

He lived up the block. He and his wife kept completely to themselves. Eventually they were taken away. Lived in utter squalor. Yard was overgrown, cats everywhere. Ate cat food.

[Rhiannon12866]

6. No! How very sad...

He lived an amazing life and a long one, but what history he saw! And he was the last, a milestone. Makes me sad. ;(

[HEyHEY]

7. That must have been so fucked for him. It's 2011!

Imagine being able to say "Gee, about a hundred years ago I was in that war" and have it be the truth. Damn.

[pettypace]

8. Just think

When he was born in 1901, a man who was 110 years old at that time would have been alive during the age of Napoleon in the 18th century!

Amazing how close we are to the dawning of western history.

[Demonaut]

11. Poppies

so many kids, such arrogance of "nobility"

[DFW]

12. My grandfather was a WW I vet, too.

We lost him in 1996 at age 102. He was fully compos mentis, too. Just tired.

He told us that he used to write his mother from the front that everything was just fine, no worries. He said it
was a series of horrors beyond imagination, but that he thought his mom would lose it if she heard the truth. I
knew her when I was small (she lived to the age of 99), and from what I remember, he was probably right.

[XemaSab]

14. So much K&R

World War I is the war that proves for once and for all that war is stupid.

Millions and millions died for NOTHING... no cause, no freedom, no reason... NOTHING.

[liberation]

16. They died for something

they died for the greed and arrogance of the very few. Frankly dying for nothing would have been a better outcome.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

17. Saw him interviewed on local TV here in W.V. about three years ago

The reporter was asking him about all of the changes in society he'd seen during his lifetime.

He was questioned as to which invention he thought had changed the world the most - the reporter started to list a few: the car, radio, TV...

As soon as he heard "TV," Mr. Buckles immediately cut off the reporter and blurted out, "I wish they'd never invented the damn things!"

He was awesome in my book after that.

[Chipper Chat]

18. I can remember when the last Civil War veteran died.

I dont remember the year but his name was Alfred Woolson and he was a drummer boy.
(Yes, I'm very old).

[Hardrada]

23. 1957. Yes, I am rather ancient. My grandfather almost went to

France in WWI as a medical officer but the war ended before his outfit could be shipped out!
He used to tell me about the training in Chicago.

[Old and In the Way]

19. Amazing how time flies....

Gramps was a WW1 vet. He had 2 missing fingers on one hand. He told me that Kaiser Wilhem bit them off...it wasn't until I was older I found out it was an industrial accident after the war. To think the last living link to WW1 is gone is sad. It's an end of an era...

[Divine Discontent]

20. Rest in Peace...

[Sherman A1]

21. Rest in Peace Mr. Buckles

Growing up a friend of the family would sometimes come for a few days. He served in the Signal Corps during WWI and would tell a few stories of the war. I don't remember much as that was long ago, but I do recall his visits and him telling the stories.

[JANdad]

22. R.I.P. Corporal

:patriot:

[Chrisnreno]

24. R.I.P. Mr. Buckles

Terribly sad to hear of his passing. I actually wrote him a letter about three years ago, and days later received an autographed photo, along with a nice handwritten note from his daughter. I felt rather privileged to receive that letter.

[elocs]

25. My grandfather was a WW1 and WW2 vet.

He ran off and joined the army when he was 16. They found he was underage and without consent after he was in so they gave him an honorable discharge. He enlisted in WW2 when he was in his 40s because he was a communications specialist, at that time meaning telephones. At the end of the was he was in the Army of Occupation in Germany. He was my mother's father, but ironically my own father ended his military stint in Germany after having made a tour of North Africa, Sicily, England, France, Belgium, and finally Germany.

[Dennis Donovan]

26. Pershing's Last Doughboy...

Cross gently, Mr Buckles.:(:patriot:

[mahatmakanejeeves]

27. There was just a thread about him here.

I saw that he had died and searched to see if that information had been posted at DU. I found this thread, from a month ago:

Bill Lohmann: Last U.S. WWI vet approaches 110

[no_hypocrisy]

28. The last to join the line . . . .

[liberal N proud]

29. End of the line

We are fast loosing our WWII vets as well.

[charlie and algernon]

31. Last U.S. World War I veteran dies

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN) -- Frank Buckles, the last 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.

(snip)

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.

As the years continued, all but Buckles had passed away, leaving him the "last man standing" among U.S. troops who were called "The Doughboys."


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/27/wwi.veteran.death/index.html

---

He was 110 years old.

It truly is all quiet on the Western Front now.

[Barack_America]

32. Rest in peace, great man.

We remain indebted to your service.

[KittyWampus]

33. Have a quiet passage Mr. Buckles. Thanks for serving so very long ago.

The changes that man must have seen in 110 years.

[sarge43]

34. Hand salute, Cpl Buckles, and peaceful passage. n/t

[Renew Deal]

35. .

:patriot:

[bikebloke]

36. My grandfather was a Great War vet, too.

But due to gassing in the war, he only lived to age 38. A lot of them went that way after the war.

[Hosnon]

37. R.I.P. (Note: The title seems odd to me.)

Stating that a "living" thing "dies" seems redundant.

[UrbScotty]

38. Well he WAS the last one living. That's probably what they meant. (nt)

[Octafish]

39. Mr. Buckles also was a POW in World War II.

A merchant seaman, he was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and was interred for more than three years under brutal conditions.