Final WWI Vet Seeks Memorial For Comrades

Final WWI veteran seeks memorial for comrades - CNN.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- At 107, Frank Buckles must know there is not much time for him to honor the memory of his comrades who served the United States during the first World War. He's the last surviving U.S. veteran of what then was called the Great War.

Buckles, during World War I, drove ambulances and later transported prisoners of war.

Frank Buckles is 107 years old and the last surviving U.S. veteran of World War I.


The old soldier comes to Washington Tuesday hoping to turn a run-down local memorial on the National Mall into something in keeping with other, permanent monuments to Americans who've sacrificed in other wars.

Buckles, who left the Army as a corporal, first visited the site back in March. "I think it was a very nice idea," he said from his wheelchair, after he and an aide had toured the gazebo-styled structure.

Buckles noted that the memorial is not national but was built primarily to honor about 500 veterans from the District of Columbia. "I can read here that it was started to include the names of those who were local," Buckles said.

He has since joined a crusade to establish the site as a national memorial, which includes a legislative push from Texas Republican congressman Ted Poe. He and Buckles plan to announce details of their mission at a 2 p.m. news conference held at the D.C. memorial site.

Also pushing the overhaul and upgrade are the D.C. Preservation League and the World War I Memorial Foundation. The site of the current monument -- in dense woods not far from the fresh and elaborate World War II memorial -- is hard to find, even in the dead of winter, when Buckles last visited.

"We just saw it through the trees," tourist Regina Duffy told CNN back in March. "I was surprised when we got over here that it was a World War I memorial because I thought it would be more prominent."

With summer foliage fully in bloom, the city's monument is almost completely obscured. Zeke Musa of Florida said it "looks like it's been neglected."

"If you just look at the walks here, all the stones are broken and everything. These guys served their country, you know? It's a shame," said Musa, a Vietnam veteran. According to an autobiography released earlier this year by the Pentagon, Buckles was eager to join the war. Although only 16 in the summer of 1917, he lied about his age to get into the armed services.

He said his recruiter told him "the Ambulance Service was the quickest way to get to France," so he took training in trench casualty retrieval.
Buckles eventually was an officer's escort in France before joining a detail transporting German prisoners of war.

He now lives on his family's cattle farm near Charles Town, West Virginia.

 

I thought we had more WWI vets still alive.

 

Hi Ike, thanks for posting this.

Also, as of two Thanksgivings-ago, we had as "many" as 50 known WWI Vets still alive. In less than a year, that had dropped to only eight still alive. As of around ast January I think it was, we lost the last WWI Navy Vet, the last combat vet, and the last female vet. ;-((

 

Wow.
1 American left. There is only 1 Canadian left, too.
All I have to say is that no matter how many vets of the great war are left people who remember will always remember their sacrifices.
Thanks for posting that.

 

It must be very lonely to be the last of anything. The clock must really become your enemy. To survive hardship and deprivation only to lose the battle to Father Time must be difficult for an old soldier.