Veterans and the passing of history from living memory
I don’t link often to the New York Times, so when I do you should take note.
By any conceivable measure, Frank Buckles has led an extraordinary life. Born on a farm in Missouri in February 1901, he saw his first automobile in his hometown in 1905, and his first airplane at the Illinois State Fair in 1907. At 15 he moved on his own to Oklahoma and went to work in a bank; in the 1940s, he spent more than three years as a Japanese prisoner of war. When he returned to the United States, he married, had a daughter and bought a farm near Charles Town, W. Va., where he lives to this day. He drove a tractor until he was 104.
But even more significant than the remarkable details of Mr. Buckles’s life is what he represents: Of the two million soldiers the United States sent to France in World War I, he is the only one left.
Go read the whole thing. Now. Honest, it won’t take long and it’s so worth it…
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Time December 21, 2007 at 07:55
[...] (See also Veterans and the pass of history from living memory.) [...]