Where are the World War I Vets ???

[rainvet]

VA Searching for Last Doughboys of World War I Only Four Believed Still Alive.

WASHINGTON (April 4, 2007) -- With the number of known living American veterans of World War I now standing at four, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is seeking public assistance in determining whether othersare still alive.

"These veterans have earned the gratitude and respect of the nation," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. "We are coming to theend of a generation that helped bring the United States to the center of the international arena."

Nicholson noted that VA usually knows about the identity and location of veterans only after they come to the Department for benefits. None of the four known surviving World War I veterans has been on the VA benefits rolls.

The Secretary asks members of the general public who know of a surviving World War I veteran to contact VA. To qualify as a World War I veteran, someone must have been on active duty between April 6, 1917 and Nov. 11, 1918. VA is also looking for surviving Americans who served in the armed forces of allied nations.

About 4.7 million men and women served in the U.S. armed forces during World War I. About 53,000 died in combat, with another 204,000 wounded.

The four known surviving World War I veterans are John Babcock, 102, from Puget Sound, Wash.; Frank Buckles, 106, Charles Town, W.Va.; Russell Coffey, 108, North Baltimore, Ohio; and Harry Landis, 107, Sun City Center, Fla.

Babcock is an American who served in the Canadian Army. The other three survivors were in the U.S. Army.

Information about survivors can be e-mailed to ww1@va.gov; faxed to 202-273-6702, or mailed to the Office of Public Affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs (80), 810 Vermont Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20420.

[knewheart]

I recently heard that there is just one remaining veteran of WWI...a Frenchman. The last American died the other day at age 110.

[TinCanMan]

Tom, ya got that one way wrong. It was the next to last French survivor of WWI that dies leaving a single French WWI vet

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationwo...,4392158.story

[Guarango]

I saw a program in England last year about the WWI vets. They interviewed a few of the last ones left. There qere two English and one French and I think they even interviewed an American Doe Boy. The origram was on the BBC 1 Network. They might know where to locate them as they have a large research department. If there any Yanks left alive and they never registered with the VA and have disabilities... wel hell,,, the VA probably owe them about a million dollars in back pay.

[Guarango]

By the way men... Isn't Knewhart a WW I vet???

[nurseflo]

I took care of one of the no longer with us WWI vets.He died about 5 years ago he was over 100 years old.He was a cute little sweetie!!!!! He still flirted with all of that took care of him and invited the lady residents to his room.I still miss him.He was a real rascal.He got an award while he was with us.Something like being in France at the very end of the war.

[nurseflo]

Hey Rainman, It's really nice to see you back on.I missed you and worried about you.You've been in my prayers.

[knewheart]

That was the Cival War, Frank. I was too old to serve in WWI.

[Guarango]

I stand corrected Knewheart. Ya still look pretty young fer a civil war vet. I bet yer C file at the VA has a wooden cover. They hadn't invented cardboard files yet. Lol

[knewheart]

"France unfurled its military majesty yesterday in honor of its last World War I veteran, Lazare Ponticelli, who died last week at age 110, and the 8.4 million other Frenchmen who served in the conflict. President Nicholas Sarkozy unveiled a plaque at Les Invalides, the gold-domed edifice where Napoleaon I is buried, to honor Ponticelli and other Frenchmen who served in the war."

(source: The Baltimore Sun, Tue, March 18, 2008)

[knewheart]

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — Frank Woodruff Buckles is about to get another feather in his cap, this time from Congress.

Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole are scheduled to honor the 107-year-old Jefferson County resident and last-known surviving U.S. World War I veteran today at the U.S. Capitol, according to officials with Rockefeller’s and Byrd’s offices.

The event will start at 2 p.m. in the LBJ Room, according to a news release from Byrd’s office.


Buckles also will be presented with an American flag that flew over the Capitol on Flag Day, Byrd’s office said.

Buckles, who lives at his Gap View Farm along old W.Va. 9 just west of Charles Town, was one of more than 2 million U.S. military members sent overseas to fight in World War I.

Since becoming the only known surviving American World War I veteran, Buckles has been honored at various events, including ceremonies March 6 when he was honored at the Pentagon and the White House. He is giving about an interview a day, according to family members.

Gov. Joe Manchin recently honored Buckles by naming a section of the new four-lane W.Va. 9 after him.

Buckles joined the Army at 15, and was an ambulance driver in France and England.

[Guarango]

Buckles is a living National Monument and should be treated as such. He out ranks us all.

[knewheart]

The Last WWI Veteran

Military.Com
Week of June 23, 2008

U.S. Senators Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) and Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) introduced a resolution honoring Frank Woodruff Buckles, the last surviving American veteran of World War I. The measure authorizes Mr. Buckles to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda upon his death. By order of the President, he will then be interred at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. For more information on Mr. Buckles, visit the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project, the White House website, and the Department of Defense's The Great War website.

[knewheart]

AMVETS Riders visit last World War I survivor
By Tom Mitchell
LEADER TIMES
Friday, July 11, 2008

Buzz up!


CHARLES TOWN (W.Va.) -- At age 106, Frank Buckles is the last surviving soldier of World War I. That alone was enough for two groups of AMVETS Riders to pay him due respect. However, the riders visiting Buckles on July 5 learned that he's done some things in his life that most can't begin to imagine, like riding little known vintage motorcycles.
Among 16 riders who visited Buckles on his Charles Town, W.Va. farm, were two members of Kittanning AMVETS Riders Post 13, a group of 13 AMVETS Riders from Tennessee, and a member of the Lakeway Warriors (Tenn.) Christian Motorcyclists Association.

Two local area riders paying their respects were Marge and Vic "Dutch" Stivason of Sugarcreek. Vic Stivason is AMVETS Riders state president. The Stivasons rode about 200 miles on their bikes to meet with Tennessee riders, who traveled about 400 miles to meet Buckles.

"This man is 106, and that in itself is amazing," said Vic Stivason. "But up until a few years ago, he worked on the family's 300-plus acre farm, drove himself to appointments and pretty much managed his own affairs."

Buckles told Stivason and other riders about his experiences riding on two wheels. He said he rode an Excelsior motorcycle, a brand first made in the late 1800s, and later A Royal Enfield, made in the 1920s or 1930s. He said he was 11 years old when the Titanic sank. Just four years later, he lied about his age to enlist in the Army to fight in World War I.
"One of the things I asked Mr. Buckles was about the vintage bikes' speed. He just smiled and said, 'They went very fast.' He has a very sharp memory, and was fascinating to talk with," Stivason said.

During the visit the Tennessee AMVETS Riders presented Buckles with a leather vest with AMVETS Rider patches and a one-of-a-kind, custom made World War I patch. He was given a "Biker's Bible" by the Christian Motorcyclists Association. The Stivasons gave him a framed plaque and a certificate of appreciation for his service to the nation.

One of the highlights of the visit was when one of Buckles daughters brought out a battered metal cup. Buckles told the riders that during World War II he worked as a civilian contractor in the Philippines. Just after the Japanese invaded the islands, he was taken prisoner and held in the Los Banos Internment Camp on the Island of Luzon.

"He passed the cup around for all of us to see and told us that it was his sole eating and drinking utensil the entire time he was a prisoner," Stivason said.

On Feb. 23, 1945, Buckles, along with several American and British civilians, and more than 2,000 U.S. soldiers were liberated from the camp by the 11th Airborne Division.

"Visiting Mr. Buckles was the opportunity of a lifetime," Stivason said. "AMVETS and AMVETS Riders is not only about serving veterans but it's about honoring those who served too. It's totally awesome to think that we were honored to meet the last surviving soldier of World War I.

[knewheart]

WORLD WAR I MEMORIAL: More than nine decades after driving ambulances on the battlefields of Europe, 107-year-old Frank Woodruff Buckles is the nation's last known survivor of World War I. Now he's also become the face of an ambitious campaign to erect a national memorial honoring the 4.6 million Americans who endured "the war to end all wars.'' Buckles was the celebrity participant at a news conference 9 SEP to unveil plans for a National World War I Memorial on Washington's National Mall. It would be midway between memorials already there to World War II and the Korean War. Planners envision refurbishing and expanding an existing memorial that President Herbert Hoover dedicated in 1931 to honor World War I veterans from the District of Columbia. That circular open-air Doric structure, ravaged by time and neglect, is tucked among trees at the southern edge of the Mall and often is ignored or overlooked by tourists. It was named as one of Washington's most endangered places in 2003 and 2006.

Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) has introduced the Frank Buckles World War I Memorial Act to renovate the memorial and rededicate it as a national shrine in 2018, when America observes the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Buckles said the 21st-century commitment was needed to make the memorial "what it should be'' by honoring all who'd gone before him. "I just feel there should be some recognition,'' he said. Buckles was born in 1901 in Harrison County, Mo. He lied about his age to enlist, telling a skeptical recruiter that Missouri didn't keep birth records when he was born. He was dispatched to England, then France, where he served as an ambulance driver. After the armistice, he delivered German POWs back to their home country. Buckles spent the next 20 years as a merchant seaman before he was entangled in another world war. He was working in the Philippines in 1941 and was captured by the Japanese shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He spent the next three and a half years in Japanese prison camps. After World War II, he returned to the United States, married and settled down on a 33-acre West Virginia farm, where he still lives. His wife died in 1999.

The D.C. Preservation League and a newly formed World War I Memorial Foundation will take the lead in planning, designing and raising money. Refurbishing the monument is expected to cost just under $1 million but planners said it was too early to project a total cost. The circular memorial, composed of Vermont marble, was intended as a bandstand for memorial concerts to World War I participants. It stands on a 4-foot-high circular marble platform around which are inscribed the names of the 499 Washington residents who died in the war. Planners said they hoped to pay for much of the work through private donations. One priority, they said, will be to preserve and improve the existing monument as a "place of peace and reflection'' without trying to rival or surpass the scope of more opulent monuments such as the World War II Memorial. [Source: McClatchy Newspapers Dave Montgomery article 9 Sep 08 ++]

[knewheart]

President George W. Bush welcomes Cpl. Frank Woodruff Buckles, the last known surviving American-born WWI veteran, to the Oval Office Thursday, March 6, 2008. The President told the 107-year-old, "...One way for me to honor the service of those who wear the uniform in the past and those who wear it today is to herald you, sir, and to thank you very much for your patriotism and your love for America."








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