Frank Buckles Last US WWI Vet

Posted by Christopher Eger Feb 19, 2008

Lying about his age in 1917, 16 year old Frank Buckles joined the Ambulance Service with the US Army and was soon a “doughboy” in General Blackjack Pershing’s American Expeditionary Force to France. Born in 1901 he served the US Army for two years in Europe, including occupation work in Germany. In his postwar life he survived a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines during World War Two and now lives quietly on his farm in West Virginia where, at 103, he still spends his days working on his tractor.

The remaining World War One vets include one last French veteran, age 110, eight living British Commonwealth veterans including the last female WWI vet and British pilot Henry Allingham, and aged 111 who served in the Royal Flying Corps. Two still living former Italian servicemen round out the Allied powers. The last German veteran Dr. Erich Kästner, died earlier this year leaving former Austro-Hungarian artilleryman Franz Kunstler, 107 who now lives in Bavaria and 109 year old Turkish veteran Yakup Satar as the last of the Central Powers veterans. The third oldest man in Europe, Finn Aarne Arvonen, who served in the Russian Army as well as in the Finnish Red Guard, is also a survivor of this great and terrible conflict.