The last American World War I veteran, Frank Buckles, has passed away at the age of 110. May he rest in peace.
America’s last World War I veteran dies
Frank Buckles, the last surviving U.S. veteran of World War I, has died. He was 110.
Buckles, who also survived being a civilian POW in the Philippines in World War II, died peacefully of natural causes early Sunday at his home in Charles Town, biographer and family spokesman David DeJonge said in a statement. Buckles turned 110 on Feb. 1 and had been advocating for a national memorial honoring veterans of World War I in Washington, D.C.
Buckles lied about his age to join the army at age 16.The Missouri native was among nearly 5 million Americans who served in World War I in 1917 and 1918.
“I knew there’d be only one (survivor) someday. I didn’t think it would be me,” he was quoted as saying in recent years.
Buckles drove an ambulance during the war. The Washington Post said that with Buckles’ death, only a 109-year-old Australian man and a 110-year-old British woman were believed to survive from the estimated 65 million people who served in the 1914-1918 war. Continue reading . . .