Last WWI Veteran Turns 109
By BETH HENRYArticle Photos
CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - America's last surviving World War I veteran marked his birthday Monday with family and close friends, noting that he has much to be thankful for as he blew out 109 candles.
Frank Woodruff Buckles, who lives on Gap View Farm near Charles Town, was born Feb. 1, 1901, in Harrison County, Mo.
He's often said that he knew he would have a long life, but he never expected to become the very last "doughboy" - after all, there were 4,734,991 Americans who served from 1917 to 1918 during the Great War. Now there is one left.
Family spokesman and biographer David DeJonge said Buckles was excited about his birthday party, and he is looking forward to at least a few more.
"He said, 'I don't think 115 is any different from 109," DeJonge said.
Buckles has a birthday wish that he's waiting for Congress to do something about - he wants to see the dedication of a World War I memorial in Washington, D.C.
Buckles serves as the honorary chairman of the World War I Memorial Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that would raise private funding to support the national memorial. He joined U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and other senators on Capitol Hill in early December to support the Frank Buckles World War I Memorial Act. The bill would dedicate a National and District of Columbia World War I Memorial to honor the sacrifices made by American WWI veterans.
It would rename an existing structure, the District of Columbia War Memorial, which was dedicated in 1931 to D.C. residents who served in the Great War, including those who lost their lives.
Rockefeller is still pushing for the bill's passage.
DeJonge, president of the World War I Memorial Foundation, said the bill doesn't seem to be moving forward much yet.
"We haven't heard really a whole lot," he said.
In the meantime, DeJonge has been working on a documentary about Buckles' life, as well as updating the Web site www.frankbuckles.org.
"Mr. Buckles is an international icon, a true patriot and the embodiment of the American 20th century," he said.
After working as a banker at the age of 15, Buckles decided that he wanted to enlist in the military when World War I propaganda posters caught his eye.
He enlisted on Aug. 14, 1917, when he was 16 years old, after fibbing about his age to an Army recruiter.
Buckles sailed to Scotland aboard the Carpathia before serving two years overseas during World War I, in England and France. He worked as an ambulance driver, and after Armistice Day he was assigned to a prisoner-of-war escort company to help return prisoners back to Germany.
Buckles returned to the United States in 1920 as a corporal.
Years later, he was captured as a prisoner of war at the beginning of World War II, when he was working as a civilian for a shipping company in the Philippines. He spent more than three years in Japanese prison camps in Santo Tomas and Los Banos, and he was rescued on Feb. 23, 1945.
After recovering and returning to the States, he met and married his wife, Audrey, in California. They lived in San Francisco for a few years, before they bought Gap View Farm near Charles Town in January 1954 and had their daughter in 1955.
|
TimSWV
|
|
|---|---|
|
02-06-10 2:41 PM
|
Thank you for your servive to OUR Country. Yes it is a shame to have a MLK memorial while our vets live in the streets and die of no medical care....
|
|
212121
|
|
|
02-05-10 7:08 AM
|
CORRECTION TO LAST MESSAGE...! MISSPELLED OF TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, OOPS! SORRY!
|
|
212121
|
|
|
02-04-10 11:02 AM
|
This WW1 Vet neds to be honored at the White House! Did not last year the President honor Muskogee Airmen from WW11? If he does not honor this WW1 vet then surely Mr. Obama is discriminating against the races ethnically!!!!
|
|
fatman
|
|
|
02-04-10 12:00 AM
|
sorry a very awesome and undescribable vaction.
|
|
GoochStephens
|
|
|
02-03-10 11:07 PM
|
I would love to sit down and play a few games of checkers with this man, without saying a word. I would just listen, and if he spoke about anything, I would learn something.
|
|
rover1958
|
|
|
02-03-10 9:41 PM
|
Frank sailed to England on the Carpathia which was the ship that rescued Titantic survivors. To put Mr. Buckles' age in perspective....Frank met and personally talked one-on-one briefly with General of the Armies John J. Pershing who had commanded all American Forces in World War I. Pershing had fought in the Indian Wars, Spanish-American War and the Pancho Villa Expedition. When I was in high school, the last Union and Confederate vets died and I remember the sense of an age passing that lots of folks felt at that time. I think when Mr. Buckles is no longer with us, that feeling will come again. I hope he's around for a long time to come.
|
|
EllisWyatt
|
|
|
02-03-10 8:08 PM
|
I think Robert Byrd voted against going into WWI during his first term as a Senator.
|
|
EllisWyatt
|
|
|
02-03-10 8:08 PM
|
Thank you, sir, for your service. You are a true American hero! I read that they are moving the old cherry trees from the National Mall in DC to make room for the construction of the Martin Luther King Memorial. Questions: 1) Why does MLK deserve a Memorial in the same place as Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson? 2) Why do we have an MLK Memorial but not a WWI Memorial?
|
|
DavidF
|
|
|
02-03-10 7:57 PM
|
This Man makes you proud to be an American. Best article I've read.
|
|
UNCOMMONSENSE
|
|
|
02-03-10 6:06 PM
|
God bless him! I would sure like to set down and talk to Frank some time Here's to many more!
|
|
Musiclover
|
|
|
02-03-10 4:54 PM
|
I thought we already had a National World War I memorial and it was in Kansas City, Missouri.
|
|
legacy08
|
|
|
02-03-10 3:53 PM
|
there should be memorials for all Americas wars
|
|
legacy08
|
|
|
02-03-10 3:51 PM
|
God bless him! true patriot!
|
|
WVUGator2
|
|
|
02-03-10 2:15 PM
|
What an amazing man, happy birthday and thank you for your service to our great country. I would love to talk to him about the things that he has witnessed that changed history.
|
|
florida
|
|
|
02-03-10 12:30 PM
|
And we, whose burden is to watch and wait-- High-hearted ever, strong in faith and prayer, We ask what offering we may consecrate, What humble service share. WWI Poem by Owen Seaman
|
|
weshatch
|
|
|
02-03-10 11:11 AM
|
forget the politics and honor the man for his service to the county. At 109 he saw the start or the car, radio, telephone, tv and so much more. We (and the kids) just do not understand haw far we have come. We also need to understand the down side of these older folks, My grandmother passed away two years ago at 93. I asked her about all she had seen and her reply was "yes, but I also saw my only child, my husband, and all my friends I grew up with die". At 93 her closest friend was 77, almost a generation apart.
|
|
JamesT
|
|
|
02-03-10 10:39 AM
|
WoW!! When this guy was in the war, West Virginia was an economic boom state controlled by the Republican Party. Now look at it!!!!!
|
|
tgreen7597
|
|
|
02-03-10 8:05 AM
|
He looks great for his age.
|
|
justmytake
|
|
|
02-03-10 7:34 AM
|
Wow, what a story. I hope someone writes this guys biography. I bet he has a lot to talk about. May he see many more birthdays.
|