Last known WWI veteran honored for Memorial Day

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080526/D90SVUNO6.html

May 25, 8:04 PM (ET)

By BRIAN CHARLTON

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Frank Woodruff Buckles, the last known living American-born veteran of World War I, was honored Sunday at the Liberty Memorial during Memorial Day weekend celebrations.

"I had a feeling of longevity and that I might be among those who survived, but I didn't know I'd be the No. 1," the 107-year-old veteran said at a ceremony to unveil his portrait.


Frank Buckles poses for a photo as he tours the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Mo. Sunday, May 25, 2008. Buckles, at 107, is the last known living American-born veteran of World War I. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)


His photograph was hung in the main hallway of the National World War I Museum, which he toured for the first time, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States presented him with a gold medal of merit.

On Monday, he will be presented the American flag flying outside the memorial.

Buckles, who now lives in Charles Town, W.Va., has been an invited guest at the Pentagon, met with President Bush in Washington, D.C., and rode in the annual Armed Forces Day Parade in his home state since his status as one of the last living from the "Great War" was discovered nearly two years ago.

Federal officials have also arranged for his burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

FULL story at link.

[Posteritatis]

1. Hell of a lifetime there

(And he looks pretty good for 107!)

[Canuckistanian]

7. He doesn't look a day older than 102

Just kidding.

Wish I was THAT good looking at 75!

[Deja Q]

2. Thank you sir, for fighting the good fight.

And thanks to the news agency that reported this too. (and to you, Omaha Steve for bringing it up here)

[LucyParsons]

3. K&R

[eppur_se_muova]

4. 107? Heck, he doesn't look any older than McCain!

Heck, he looks a *LOT* like McCain!

[texanwitch]

5. My Grandfather served in WWI , wounded in the leg.

My Grandfather would have been almost the same age.

I have both Purple Hearts, the paper one and the medal he received later.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. The Last Leaf by Oliver Wendell Holmes

came immediately to mind as I read this.

For those who are unfamiliar with the poem, I believe it is about Major Thomas Melville, last surviving "Indian" living from the Boston Tea Party. Holmes wrote the poem ca 1833. Anyway, the poem:

I saw him once before,
As he passed by the door,
And again
The pavement stones resound,
As he totters o'er the ground
With his cane.

They say that in his prime,
Ere the pruning-knife of Time
Cut him down,
Not a better man was found
By the Crier on his round
Through the town.

But now he walks the streets,
And he looks at all he meets
Sad and wan,
And he shakes his feeble head,
That it seems as if he said,
"They are gone!"

The mossy marbles rest
On the lips that he has prest
In their bloom,
And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb.

My grandmamma has said--
Poor old lady, she is dead
Long ago--
That he had a Roman nose,
And his cheek was like a rose
In the snow;

But now his nose is thin,
And it rests upon his chin
Like a staff,
And a crook is in his back,
And a melancholy crack
In his laugh.

I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
But the old three-cornered hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so queer!

And if I should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring,
Let them smile, as I do now,
At the old forsaken bough
Where I cling.

[T Monk]

8. rest in peace, tootie