Harry Richard Landis. Story here.
This leaves Frank Buckles, 107, as the last one still alive.
I’m curious, though. Landis signed up during World War I but was not actually sent to Europe. Can that really count as a “vet,” regardless of what the VA thinks? But I salute the man anyway.
Yikes. The passing of another generation. When I was born some Spanish-American War guys were still left. I suppose the last WWII soldier will die in about 2040 or so. I may live to see that too.
Thank you for the post
This prompted me to do some Googling, to no avail. How many WWI vets were still alive 5 years ago? 1 year ago? I seem to remember reading articles when they numbered in the dozens or hundreds, and I’m curious how quickly we got to 1.
Frank Buckles has had quite a remarkable life. He lives just up the road from where I now work.
He never saw combat in France, and by the time WWII rolled around he was told he was too old to serve. So he continued working for his shipping company, and was working for them in Manila when it fell to the Japanese.
He spent three years as a civilian POW, and the malnutrition he suffered screwed up his sense of balance to this day.
I wonder if there are any “unofficial” WWI vets still left-i.e. those who illegally joined as pre-17 kids, and either got found out and discharged with their records whitewashed, or managed to stay and finish their tours.
Very. Once they all hit 90 or so they dropped like flies.
The aforementioned Frank Buckles lied about his age - he was 16 when he got to France.
I don’t think this was ever grounds for having your records whitewashed - the most they’d do is muster you out.
And Frank Buckles has just been thanked by Bush. Story here.
The last German (Austro-Hungarian?) vet dies a bit ago.
Mr. Buckles looked quite confused when Bush asked “So did you fight for the north or the south?” and “Was Napoleon as short as he was on that show with all the time stealing leperchauns?”
I wish I had known more about WW1 when my grandfather was alive. Not only was he a vet but so were two of his remaining brothers and several of his VFW lodge buddies in the tiny town where he lived- it was no rarer than WW2 vets today- but at the time (when I was about 12-13) the names Verdun and Argonne et al had no meaning.
I did ask him once what the biggest difference was between France and Alabama. His answer, one of those things you don’t read about in history books, was “There were more Germans shootin’ at you in France.” (He also told me, quite unsolicited, about being on the receiving end of oral sex from a French prostitute; hard to imagine that he was in his early 20s, not a virgin [he was something of a randy youth even], and yet that was the first time he’d ever had that experience- and it terrified him at first because he thought she was crazy.)
Sampiro, i wonder if your grandfather served in the Rainbow Division, since the Alabama National Guard was a major component of it.
If so, he may have taken part in the Battle of the Argonne, which was a bloodier battle for the US than Gettysburg or the Bulge. Imagine going into combat wearing a wool shirt and heavy shoes with hobnails and a horseshoe-shaped heel plate, hauling 60-80 pounds of gear, back when the average man weighed 135 pounds. During the first three days of the battle they received no fresh water because they needed the horses to haul ammunition instead. That’s a lot of suffering to go through to make the world safe for fellatio.
This is the oldest UK army veteran of WWI - click on the UK or England links on the left to get to a link to the poem being read…
BBC News site
(The article mentions an older navy veteran…)
Yes, there’s a thread on him here.
Wait, what? The average man weighed 135 pounds at the beginning of last century?
This was a major story in my hometown newspaper, “The Democrat-Leader” in Fayette, Missouri. Apparently he went to college there. Still, it’s weird seeing my (tiny) hometowns name mentioned on CNN.
Australia’s last ANZAC to fight at Gallipoli, Alec Campbell, died in 2002. I mention him because the Gallipoli campaign has rather iconic status in Australia.
The last Australian WWI soldier to die was Evan Allen, who passed in 2005.
By coincidence, there was an article just today on the guy in the Boston Globe.
But now I’m feeling old, because I can remember seeing World War I vets marching in the Veterans Day parade. And when I moved to my current house, the vets post down the street still had a sign up saying “World War I veterans meeting every Wednesday.”
Yes. To have veteran status, you must be on active duty during a conflict. My brother joined the Army during the last two weeks of Korea, has the campaign ribbons and is considered a veteran, even though he never left the States. People spend entire wars sitting in the Pentagon or as REMFs, but still qualify.
Nonsense. Free men must always be prepared to stand defiant before those who would deprive us of a good knob polishing. I think Woodrow Wilson said that.
The Rainbow Division?!? If so, that would be hysterical.
