Last Man Standing

In case you missed the story, a 108 year old man by the name of Harry Richard Landis died on Monday, Feb 4th and with his passing another man, Frank Woodruff Buckles, earned the truly incredible distinction of being the last known surviving American-born veteran of the First World War. Of the 4,734,991 U.S. forces mobilized between 1914 and 1918 Frank Buckles is the last man standing.

02.07. filed under: headlines. history. people.


i wish i had time to watch that video, because—-and i’m not sure that WWI holds the same significance in american minds as it does in the minds of kiwis and aussies?—-this is significant news.  i think it points to our relationship, now, with this previous era, and historical processes that have been set in motion since that time: the united nations, the collapse of empire and sovereign nationhood, the enormous numbers of migrant populations.

thank you for this post; i will link to it.

cheers,
leila

posted on 02.08 at 04:25 PMleila


Good stuff Jaime!

But here’s the sad stuff. “When the announcement is made that Mr. Buckles is gone and, with him, the entire generation that fought in the Great War, I hope it will be a time for the country to really pause and think about this generation that sacrificed so much for our country,” said Denise Rendina, ... [The National World War I Museum] spokeswoman. It “will make a war that took place some 90 years ago feel suddenly very real and very close to us.”

From the Chicago Tribune (alas, the Kansas City Star has no such story in its archives).

Very Respectfully,

p.s. God bless you Mr. Buckles.

posted on 02.21 at 03:41 AMJoe Moran

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