"Henry Allingham’s secret for living 113 years was, by his own admission, "cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women." That sounds like a much more fun health plan than vegetables, milk and mild, mild women. Allingham, a British World War I veteran, was the world’s oldest living man until July 19, when he died quietly in his sleep. Fellow World War I veteran Harry Patch, also from England, passed away Sunday at age 111. Patch was Great Britain’s last World War I veteran living in England. Canada’s only remaining veteran of the Great War turned 109 on July 23, and Frank Buckles, America’s lone World War I vet, is 108. Sadly, it won’t be long before there’s no one left who fought in one of the world’s largest and most significant conflicts. World War I is important because, in a nutshell, it made the United States a global superpower and sowed the seeds for World War II. Oddly enough, no national World War I memorial exists, even though more than 100,000 Americans died in the "war to end all wars," according to http://www.wwimemorial.org/" A sad and unfortunate truth, read more here: WWII, Korea vets are dwindling | wwii, allingham, dwindling - Local - Brownsville Herald
WWII veterans fading Next year, nearly 2 million American veterans who served in World War II are expected to be living. That number is forecast to fall to about 270,000 in 2020. The trend is reflected in the predictions for the number of World War II veterans living in each state. State / 2010 / 2015 / 2020 / Tenn. / 36,000 / 16,000 / 5,000 / Miss. / 16,000 / 7,000 / 2,000 / Ark. / 21,000 / 9,000 / 3,000 / Found this info on the lower part of this article: Aging Mid-South World War II veterans to visit war memorials in D.C. : Local News : Memphis Commercial Appeal
This paragraph really hit me. My father died in at 72. He would have been 92 this year. I just have trouble imagining him that old. At the risk of being morbid, every man or woman who served in World War II is at least 85 years old or so, and even with advances in modern health care, our precious remaining veterans, like their World War I counterparts, gradually are being lost to old age.
