National Security

The Last Doughboy, R.I.P.

By Mark Thompson | @MarkThompson_DC | February 28, 2011 | +
Frank Buckles chats with Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, at a 2008 unveiling of World War I survivors' portraits at the Pentagon / DoD photo

There used to be a newsletter for American veterans of World War I. When I first saw it some two decades or more ago, it noted there were some 4,000 of them still alive. I haven’t seen it in many years — I don’t recall its name, but it might have been The Torch. Amazing that any were still alive, given that their war began in this decade a century ago. Alas, its subscriber base dwindled to zero over the weekend with the death of Frank Buckles of West Virginia at 110.

From this morning’s Washington Post:

In 1917 and 1918, close to 5 million Americans served in World War I, and Mr. Buckles, a cordial fellow of gentle humor, was the last known survivor. “I knew there’d be only one someday,” he said a few years back. “I didn’t think it would be me.”  His daughter, Susannah Buckles Flanagan, said Mr. Buckles, a widower, died of natural causes on his West Virginia farm, where she had been caring for him.

Godspeed, Corporal Buckles.

Related Topics: frank buckles, world war i veteran, National Security

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  • Elise

    R.I.P., indeed. I am just sorry that the “war to end all wars” was the begining of chemical warfare, faceless killings from the air and wholesale slaughter. The ceasefire in the trenches and the sharing of food at Christmas with “Silent Night” sung in German and English. Many, many, thoughts as this last person dies.
    30 years ago I had an English “Captiam Mac” stay with my family. He told of being a “spotter” up in a dirgible floating over the troops to watch and report on the movements. He was old then so I’m fairly certain he is gone as well. R.I.P to all and any veterans of any war.

  • kbanginmotown

    Now, truly, all’s quiet on the Western Front.
    .
    RIP

  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    One of the things I’ve noticed as I’ve grown older is that events happened in the distant past, counterintuitively seem more recent and pertinent. When i was in high school, it seemed that anything happened before the Kennedy assasination was in a different world. Now I can not only see clearly the ways we’re still “fighting the civil war” but, in the current populations of the western Hemishpere, see the results of migration patterns that were laid out in the fifteen hundreds.

    This perspective is helpful because it helps remind us that things we now all agree are “unthinkable” like slavery and naziism are really NOT all that far removed from our current era. We’re still nowhere near as civilized as we give oursleves credit for.

  • http://erieangel.wordpress.com erieangel

    Amen to that!

  • apr2563

    kbanginmotown: That was lovely.

  • apr2563

    Mark: In reading about Mr. Buckles today, I learned he has been working for a nationally recognized WWI site.
    I had no idea there was one in Washington DC.
    It is too late for Mr. Buckles, but history demands a site be designated.

  • apr2563

    Correction: I had no idea there was NOT one in Washington DC.

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