W.Va. veteran among last from WWI

[Amelia]

W.Va. veteran among last from WWI

By The Associated Press

July 05, 2007

CHARLES TOWN — Frank Buckles is 106 now and not as spry as he used to be. But try to help him from a chair to his feet, and he will bellow a loud, clear “No.”

Ninety years after the headstrong teenager lied his way into a uniform, then the European theater of World War I, the older version of that boy remains fiercely independent, determined to live life on his terms, at his pace.

That means to learn about Buckles, you’ll need to sit a spell — to hear stories of a lifetime that hardly seems possible today, to hear stories of a war that few are still able to tell.

More than 4.7 million Americans joined the military from 1917-18, but the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says only three survive. For decades, Buckles sat in the living room of his stone farmhouse in a scenic corner of West Virginia and read issues of a military magazine called The Torch, watching that list dwindle.

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/2007070414

[Liz]

It is people like him that should write books. He sounded very interesting.

[Dr. Shane]

When I was a teenager (during the '80s) the man that owned the local Army syrplus store was a WW1 veteran. I think he is the only one I ever met - unless I unknowingly met some while ministering in nursing homes. A lot of them went on to fight in WW2 too.