An Amazing Life

If you haven't yet read it, be sure to check out George Will's magnificent tribute to the last surviving American World War I veteran, "The Last Doughboy." It's about the amazing life of 107-year-old Frank Buckles, who volunteered for the Army at 16 by lying about his age.

Here's a small sample:

After Cpl. Buckles was mustered out of the Army in 1920 with $143.90 in his pocket, he went to business school in Oklahoma City for five months, then rented a typewriter for $3 a month and sent out job applications. One landed him work in the steamship business, which took him around the world — Latin America, China, Manchuria. And Germany, where, he says, in 1928 "two impressive gentlemen" told him, "We are preparing for another war."

Behind glass in a cabinet in his small sitting room are mementos from his eventful life: a German army belt with a buckle bearing words all nations believe, "Gott Mit Uns" (God Is With Us). The tin cup from which he ate all his meals, such as they were, during the 39 months he was a prisoner of the Japanese — because he was working for a shipping company in Manila on Dec. 7, 1941.

Just think – this man, whose faculties are obviously undimmed by time, was a contemporary of Sgt. Alvin York – yet he's still with us.

To put things in perspective, I remember excitedly watching a Memorial Day Parade down the Grand Concourse in the Bronx as a young boy. The guests of honor were three elderly veterans of the Spanish-American War, who were dressed in their old Rough Rider uniforms. The parade was probably held in 1946 or 1947, some 48 years after the Spanish-American War had been fought.

At the time, the Spanish-American War seemed like ancient history to me, and its surviving veterans looked very, very old. Yet, I am now nearly as old (66) as they must have been.

As I was growing up, I remember hearing on the news about the last of the Civil War veterans passing on, one by one. Now, we are down to the last World War I veteran.

In my mind, World War II is still a vivid memory. Although I was only 3 at the time, I still remember the joyous celebrations in 1945 when first the Germans, then later the Japanese, surrendered, and the war was over. Yet, in the minds of today's children, World War II seems like ancient history, even though it ended "only" 63 years ago. And, sadly, we are now losing that war's veterans, truly our greatest generation, at the rate of over a thousand a day. Before we know it, the day will come when we hear that only one of them still lives among us here on earth.