Last living U.S. World War I vet turns 109 - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Last living U.S. World War I vet turns 109

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — America’s last surviving World War I veteran marked his birthday Monday with family and close friends, noting that he has much to be thankful for as he blew out 109 candles.

Frank Woodruff Buckles, who lives on Gap View Farm near Charles Town, was born Feb. 1, 1901, in Harrison County, Mo.

He’s often said that he knew he would have a long life, but he never expected to become the very last “doughboy” — after all, there were 4,734,991 Americans who served from 1917 to 1918 during the Great War. Now there is one left.

Family spokesperson and biographer David DeJonge said Buckles was excited about his birthday party, and he is looking forward to at least a few more.

“He said, ‘I don’t think 115 is any different from 109,’ ” DeJonge said.

Buckles has a birthday wish that he’s waiting for Congress to do something about — he wants to see the dedication of a World War I memorial in Washington, D.C.

Buckles serves as the honorary chairman of the World War I Memorial Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that would raise private funding to support the national memorial. He joined U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and other senators on Capitol Hill in early December to support the Frank Buckles World War I Memorial Act. The bill would dedicate a National and District of Columbia World War I Memorial to honor the sacrifices made by American WWI veterans.

It would rename an existing structure, the District of Columbia War Memorial, which was dedicated in 1931 to D.C. residents who served in the Great War, including those who lost their lives.

Rockefeller is still pushing for the bill’s passage, and he sent a birthday message to Buckles on Monday.

“I wish a very happy birthday to my friend Frank Buckles — a true patriot, a proud West Virginian and the last surviving veteran of World War I — who turns 109 on Feb. 1. On this special occasion, I am enormously proud to recognize Frank’s leadership as honorary chairman of the World War I Memorial Foundation,” Rockefeller said in a news release. “I share the foundation’s unwavering commitment to rededicating the existing ... memorial as a national monument honoring every one of our nation’s WWI veterans. And I will continue to champion the Senate legislation [Senate Bill 2097] that will make it possible.”

DeJonge, president of the World War I Memorial Foundation, said the bill doesn’t seem to be moving forward much yet.

“We haven’t heard really a whole lot,” he said.

In the meantime, DeJonge has been working on a documentary about Buckles’ life, as well as updating the veteran’s Web site.

“Mr. Buckles is an international icon, a true patriot and the embodiment of the American 20th century,” he said.

DeJonge anticipates the film production will take approximately 12 months to complete with a targeted release in late 2011 or early 2012, he hopes in the United States and Great Britain. The team is seeking a corporate sponsor for the film and is in discussions with broadcast outlets.

Buckles certainly has plenty of stories to share for the film.

After working as a banker at the age of 15, he decided that he wanted to enlist in the military when World War I propaganda posters caught his eye.

He enlisted on Aug. 14, 1917, when he was 16 years old, after fibbing about his age to an Army recruiter.

Buckles sailed to Scotland aboard the Carpathia before serving two years overseas during World War I, in England and France. He worked as an ambulance driver, and after Armistice Day he was assigned to a prisoner-of-war escort company to help return prisoners back to Germany.

Buckles returned to the United States in 1920 as a corporal.

Years later, he was captured as a prisoner of war at the beginning of World War II, when he was working as a civilian for a shipping company in the Philippines. He spent more than three years in Japanese prison camps in Santo Tomas and Los Banos, and he was rescued on Feb. 23, 1945.

After recovering and returning to the States, he met and married his wife, Audrey, in California. They lived in San Francisco for a few years before they bought Gap View Farm near Charles Town in January 1954 and had their daughter in 1955.

His daughter, Susannah Buckles Flanagan, and her husband live with him on his farm.

Genetics, healthy eating and exercise are vital for a long life, Buckles said during an interview when he was 106, but one more thing ranks higher.

“The will to survive is what’s most important,” he said.