Old Soldiers....Last American WWI veteran passes

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Old Soldiers....Last American WWI veteran passes

Postby Caliban » Tue Mar 01, 2011 10:08 am

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... d-110.html

America's last World War One veteran Frank Buckles dies aged 110


Frank Buckles, believed to be the last surviving US veteran of World War One, has died at age 110.

Mr Buckles's daughter said that her father had died on Sunday at his farm in West Virginia.

Mr Buckles, who celebrated his 110th birthday on Feb 1, lied about his age to join the US army at age 16.

The Missouri native was among nearly 5 million Americans who served in World War One in 1917 and 1918.

"I knew there'd be only one (survivor) someday. I didn't think it would be me," he said.

Mr Buckles drove an ambulance during the war.

In 1941, while working as a civilian in Manila, he was captured by the invading Japanese and held prisoner for 38 months during World War Two.

"Frank was a history book in and of himself, the kind you can't get at the library," said his friend Muriel Sue Kerr.

The Washington Post said that with Mr 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.
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