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Cpl. Frank Buckles - Last surviving US WWI Vet

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Last American WWI Veteran Dies

ht_frank_buckles_1_090522_mn.jpg


Present...Arms!

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2011

Frank Woodruff Buckles, the last surviving American World War I veteran, died yesterday at his West Virginia home. He was 110.

Sixteen-year-old Buckles enlisted in the Army on Aug. 14, 1917 after lying to several recruiters about his age.

"I was just 16 and didn't look a day older. I confess to you that I lied to more than one recruiter. I gave them my solemn word that I was 18, but I'd left my birth certificate back home in the family Bible. They'd take one look at me and laugh and tell me to home before my mother noticed I was gone," Buckles wrote in 2009.

Buckles tried the Marines and Navy, but both turned him away. An Army recruiter, however, accepted his story.

"Somehow I got the idea that telling an even bigger whopper was the way to go. So I told the next recruiter that I was 21 and darned if he didn't sign me up on the spot!" he wrote.

Buckles earned the rank of corporal and traveled England and France serving as an ambulance driver. After the Armistice in 1918, Buckles escorted prisoners of war back to Germany. He was discharged in 1920.
.../cont/...
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Sadly this is an end to a great era of great people! God bless him and his family!
I was lucky enough to be on a honor guard when I was stationed in Ft. Jackson, SC and was one of the rifle men in the burial ceremony of on of the few remaining WWI vets at the time in 1993. I felt it a great honor to be there for such a brave persons memorial.
 
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Last U.S. World War One Veteran Dies

Frank Buckles, the last World War I veteran in the United States, died at his home in Charles Town, West Virginia, Sunday at the age of [strike]101[/strike] 110.


http://www.nola.com/military/index.ssf/2011/02/frank_buckles_last_us_world_wa_1.html

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbggEGUaE28"]YouTube - Over There: Remembering WWI ~ Music by George M. Cohan, Sung by Billy Murray[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgqVCJpRqWQ"]YouTube - "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?" (Nora Bayes, 1919)[/ame]

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No more "War to end all Wars", corpse rats, trenches, and ooh-la-la!

(History P.S. - General "Black Jack" Pershing. His original nickname was actually "****** Jack" because he had commanded black troops - the famous 10th Cavalry "Buffalo Soldiers" - and the cadets at West Point, who did not like him as an instructor, gave him the nickname.

p.p.s. - as a young officer he participated in the Wounded Knee massacre of the Lakota Sioux in 1890
also, George Patten served with Pershing in the Punative Expedition after Pancho Villa in 1916)
 
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Jesus! Speaker John Boehner is blocking legislation to allow Buckles' body to lie in state in the Capital rotunda.

http://www.wvmetronews.com/index.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=43689

West Virginia Lawmakers who wanted to allow the body of World War I veteran Frank Buckles
to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda might not get their wish.

House Speaker John Boehner has indicated he will not support a plan to have Buckles lie in state.

Buckles was the last surviving World War I veteran. He died at his home in Charles Town last weekend.
He was 110. Since his death, members of West Virginia's congressional delegation have been pushing a
resolution to allow Buckles to lie in state.

On Thursday, the spokesman for Boehner, Michael Steel, said Buckles should be honored with a ceremony
at Arlington National Cemetery, rather than lie in state.
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What the Hell??? :shake: My grandfather was a doughboy. This sucks!
 
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