[speed]

"Mr. Buckles, who was born by lantern light in a Missouri farmhouse, quit school at 16 and bluffed his way into the Army. As the nation flexed its full military might overseas for the first time, he joined 4.7 million Americans in uniform and was among 2 million U.S. troops shipped to France to vanquish the German kaiser.

Ninety years later, with available records showing that former corporal Buckles, serial No. 15577, had outlived all of his compatriots from World War I, the Department of Veterans Affairs declared him the last doughboy standing. He was soon answering fan mail and welcoming a multitude of inquisitive visitors to his rural home."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022800165_pf.html

 

[Cascade Jinx]

Interesting read! Thanks for sharing! Those WWI Dough Boys were the first of our boys to face the then new modernized automatic weapons on a routine basis. They kind of set the standard for tactics later expanded on in later wars. It must of been terrifying for those young men. An this fellow was just 16 when he went over to Europe.

CJ

 

[moofy07]

We lost the last Australian WW1 member (in Oz we refered to them as Diggers) last year. It is so sad that these wonderful people no longer exist, except in our hearts and memories. As we say in Australia WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

 

[Tedak]

It really strikes me as a moment of pause as history turns another page.