Have faith 5089, they still ain't gonna get by.
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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Remaining World War I survivors are dwindling |
| 2006-11-11 |
| Scrawny but determined to fight in World War I, Howard Ramsey scarfed down banana after banana to bulk up enough to enlist. Today, he is still feisty at 108. At 16, Frank Buckles lied about his age so that he could go to war against the Germans in France. Now 105, he still runs his West Virginia cattle farm. Moses Handy, the son of former slaves, and his segregated unit battled the enemy in horrific trench combat. Now 112 or 113, he says that the only doctor he needs is Dr Pepper. These remarkable "Doughboys"are members of an increasingly fragile fraternity, relics of a world-changing war little remembered today. Once, they stood 4.7 million strong: American farm boys, factory hands and tradesmen itchy for adventure, all called by their country to fight "the war to end all wars." Now, on the 88th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, there aren't enough surviving U.S. veterans of that defining conflict to fill a platoon. When 2006 began, an unofficial roster of known remaining American WWI veterans listed about 24 names. Eleven months later, those ranks have dwindled to 12, Scripps Howard News Service has confirmed. Perhaps another 12, who joined the armed forces after Armistice Day and served in the immediate aftermath of the war, still live, as well. With the men having an average age of 108, it is unlikely that these numbers will hold for long. All are pushing the envelope of human longevity, especially Emiliano Mercado del Toro, of Isabella, Puerto Rico, who at 115 is both the world's oldest living man and the longest-lived U.S. veteran. "The torch is quickly passing," said retired Brig. Gen. Steve Berkheiser, the executive director of the National World War One Museum. So is an era that seems ancient by today's standards. Many of these veterans were born under a U.S. flag with just 45 stars and have witnessed three centuries. They have seen 19 presidents lead the nation through seven wars. Their lives began before airplanes, radio, talking movies and antibiotics. "They're the only generation that has gone from outhouses to outer space," said Muriel Sue Parkhurst Kerr, who heads what's left of the Veterans of World War I of the United States organization. They also were part of a pivotal war, one that vaulted America onto the world stage for the first time, and set in eventual motion World War II, the Cold War and the Middle East turmoil that continues today. The mobilization of men was massive. Two million troops were sent to France. In all, 116,516 Americans died, in combat and from the Spanish flu, and 204,002 were wounded. When it was over, they came home, quietly and without celebrations or veterans' benefits. The only national memorial in the Washington area to the World War I soldiers and sailors is a small plaque at Arlington National Cemetery. Antonio Pierro saw terrible things when he fought in the Argonne offensive in France. But he returned to a quiet life in Swampscott, Mass., where he worked in a General Electric plant. His longevity - he is 110 - has brought him more attention than anything else. No one knows for sure how many WWI veterans are alive. There was no national roll kept of their names, and a fire at a St. Louis official-documents repository destroyed as much as 80 percent of the WWI-era military records. It would not surprise the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is in the early stages of planning a final tribute to the last of the Doughboys, if more than the fast-dwindling 12 exist. "We hope this attention to them will bring more to light," Scheer said. So does Will Everett, a documentarian in South Padre Island, Texas, and a WWI buff. Determined to preserve the memories of as many remaining veterans as possible, Everett traveled the country this year to interview them. Part Two of his two-hour radio presentation - narrated by news icon Walter Cronkite - will air at 6 p.m. Sunday on radio station WFDD 88.5 FM in Winston-Salem. "I feel I'm a keeper of the flame," Everett said. He and author Richard Rubin, who has interviewed 36 WWI veterans since 2003 for the forthcoming book The Last of the Doughboys, marvel at the stoic resolve and uncommon grit of this generation, and they lament that they are passing into history without the appreciation and recognition that they long ago earned. "We pride ourselves on being a country that cares deeply about its veterans, and yet, for decades now, we have overlooked, perhaps even forgotten, our World War I veterans," Rubin said. "We should ... remember them as a link to the very best of what America was and a catalyst for the very best of what America is." |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #7 Granted, given that the Great Depression was decade later, perhaps my point isn't completely valid, although the need to pay reparations did take a lot out of the German economy. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-11-11 23:21 |
| #6 Germany was hardest hit by the Great Depression on top of the reparations demanded by the victors, Anonymoose. There was nothing from which to give. That America also did nothing, however, is inexcusably shameful. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-11-11 23:09 |
| #5 Erich Maria Remarque, author of "All Quiet On The Western Front", did not fight in the war, and yet had a marvelous gift of expressing what those who did went through. But few people are aware of the sequel he wrote to his great novel. "The Road Back", shows the despair, poverty and misery of the German vets after the war, and features a silent parade of the horribly wounded, crippled and disfigured soldiers, demanding just a pittance on which to survive--a pittance refused by their homeland. And yet, in the United States, our World War I veterans faced a similar struggle against a government equally unwilling to pay a pittance to impoverished veterans. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-11-11 18:40 |
| #4 Have faith 5089, they still ain't gonna get by. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2006-11-11 15:39 |
| #3 Amazing men the heard the call. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2006-11-11 12:51 |
| #2 I will never forget as a youth in Phoenix seeing a Veterans day parade with several WWI vets, and believe it or not a couple of Spanish-American War Vets going by in a car. It was probably 1978. Apparantly a lot of WWI vets who were exposed to Gas lived in AZ because the climate was more comfortable for them, given their lung issues. Also, a lot of retirees in general lived there. They really saw a lot over their lifetimes. |
| Posted by: JAB 2006-11-11 11:11 |
| #1 Only 4 poilus (WWI grunts) left in France; 1,4 millions killed in the defense of the patrie, 10% of all male population, all to finally arrive to Eurabia. Oh, well. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-11-11 10:26 |