Last US WWI veteran dies

The last US World War I veteran has died at the age of 110. Frank Buckles died of natural causes at home in West Virginia early on Sunday

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Buckles enlisted in the army when the US entered the war in 1917. He was 16 years old and lied about his age in order to get into the military. In his letter to the congressional record, he described how he persuaded the recruiters to let him in:

“I was just 16 and didn’t look a day older. I confess to you that I lied to more than one recruiter. I gave them my solemn word that I was 18, but I’d left my birth certificate back home in the family Bible. They’d take one look at me and laugh and tell me to go home before my mother noticed I was gone. Somehow I got the idea that telling an even bigger whopper was the way to go. So I told the next recruiter that I was 21 and darned if he didn’t sign me up on the spot! I enlisted in the Army on 14 August 1917.”

He was a US Army ambulance driver in Europe during World War I and rose to the rank of corporal before the war ended.

After World War I ended, he worked for the merchant marine.

During World War II, he was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and held prisoner of war for more than three years, where he became malnourished and devoped beriberi.