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Frank Buckles
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Frank Woodruff Buckles (born February 1, 1901) is, at age 108, the last identified living American veteran of World War I. He currently lives in Charles Town, West Virginia and is the Honorary Chairman of the World War I Memorial Foundation.
les was born in Bethany, Missouri. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at the beginning of America's involvement in World War I in April 1917. Only 16 years old at the time, Buckles was asked by his recruiter to show a birth certificate.
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Encyclopedia
Frank Woodruff Buckles (born February 1, 1901) is, at age 108, the last identified living American veteran of World War I. He currently lives in Charles Town, West Virginia and is the Honorary Chairman of the World War I Memorial Foundation.
Biography
Buckles was born in Bethany, Missouri. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at the beginning of America's involvement in World War I in April 1917. Only 16 years old at the time, Buckles was asked by his recruiter to show a birth certificate. Later Buckles said of that event, “When I was born in Missouri, they [the state] didn't give out [issue] birth certificates, and the only record we kept was in the family Bible, and I told them I wasn't going to bring that down here, so...they took me." Before being accepted into the United States Army, he was turned down by the Marine Corps due to his slight weight. In 1917, Buckles was sent to Europe on the RMS Carpathia, the same ship that had rescued the survivors of the Titanic sinking in 1912. During the war Buckles served in England and France, driving ambulances and motorcycles for the Army's 1st Fort Riley Casual Detachment. After the Armistice in 1918, Buckles escorted prisoners of war back to Germany. Following his discharge in 1919, he attended the dedication of the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, in honor of those Americans who died in World War I. While there, he met General of the Armies John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing, commander all U.S. forces in France during the war. Mr. Buckles lived in Germany from 1936 to 1938. While there, he met Adolf Hitler.
In the 1920s Buckles worked for the White Star Line in Canada (the White Star Line had operated the Titanic). During World War II he worked as a civilian for an American shipping company in the Philippine Islands. He was captured by the Japanese in 1942 and spent the next three years in the Los Banos prison camp. He was rescued on February 23, 1945. In 1953, Buckles married and bought a farm in West Virginia. His wife died in 1999.
Buckles today
Mr. Buckles currently lives in Charles Town, West Virginia. To those who tell him he lied about his age, he replies, “I didn't lie-- nobody calls me a liar.". Buckles stated in an interview with The Washington Post on Veterans' Day 2007 that he believes the United States should only go to war "when it's an emergency." When asked about the secret of his long life, Buckles replied, "Hope." He chuckled,"When you start to die...don't." He also said the reason he has lived so long is that,"I never got in a hurry."
The U.S. Library of Congress included Buckles in its Veterans History Project and has audio, video and pictorial information on Buckles' experiences in both world wars, including a full 148-minute video interview. His life was featured on the Memorial Day 2007 episode of NBC Nightly News. On March 6, 2008, he met with President Bush at the White House. The same day, he attended the opening of a Pentagon exhibit featuring photos of the nine surviving World War I veterans created by historian and photographer David DeJonge. Of the group, only Buckles and Canadian veteran John Babcock are left. Babcock was unable to attend.
Buckles has said he will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was eligible for cremation and placement in a columbarium at Arlington, but expressed a desire for burial there, which he was not eligible for under current Arlington policy. Friends and family members took up his cause, but made no headway until a family member, Ken Buckles, contacted Ross Perot, whom Frank had met at a history seminar in 2001. Within two weeks, Perot had successfully intervened with the White House, and on March 19, 2008, Buckles received special approval for underground burial at Arlington.
Mr. Buckles is the Honorary Chairman of the World War I Memorial Foundation, which seeks refurbishment of the DC War Memorial and its' establishment as the National World War I Memorial on The Mall in Washington, D.C./
Awards
For his service during World War I, Buckles received (from the U.S. Government) the WWI Victory Medal and the Army of Occupation Medal. In addition, French president Jacques Chirac awarded him France's Legion of Honor.
On May 25, 2008, Buckles received the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Gold Medal of Merit at the Liberty Memorial. He sat for a portrait taken by David DeJonge that will hang in the National World War I Museum, as "the last surviving link."
See also
- List of last surviving World War I veterans by country
- List of surviving veterans of World War I
External links
- (The New York Times Op-Ed about Frank Buckles, written by Richard Rubin and published on November 12, 2007)
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- by Richard Rubin, Smithsonian Magazine, October 2008. Accessed 3 December 2008.
- frankbuckles.org official website.
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