They're nearly all gone

[52Styleline]

TAMPA, Fla. – Harry Richard Landis, who enlisted in the Army in 1918 and was one of only two known surviving U.S. veterans of World War I, has died. He was 108.
Landis, who lived at a Sun City Center nursing home, died Monday, according to the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs.

The remaining U.S. veteran is Frank Buckles, 107, of Charles Town, W.Va., according the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In addition, John Babcock of Spokane, Wash., 107, served in the Canadian army and is the last known Canadian veteran of the war.
Another World War I vet, Ohioan J. Russell Coffey, died in December at 109. The last known German World War I veteran, Erich Kaestner, died New Year's Day at 107.

Landis trained as a U.S. Army recruit for 60 days at the end of the war and never went overseas. But the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs counts him among the 4.7 million men and woman who served during the Great War.

The last time all known U.S. veterans of a war died was Sept. 10, 1992, when Spanish-American War veteran Nathan E. Cook passed away at age 106.

 

[jamespowers]

Wow! It is amazing they lived this long.
I wonder if someone is tracking down the last remaining veterans to get their comments and stories. It may seem like they'll live forever but they aren't going to. I wonder how many are even actually lucid enough to get comments from at this point in their lifetime.

 

[Lincsong]

World War I seems so long ago, but it hasn't even been 100 years.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It really doesn't seem like that long ago when we'd see WW1 vets marching in Memorial Day parades. The doctor who delivered me was a WW1 vet, the eye doctor I went to when I was little was a WW1 vet, and kept a picture of his unit on the wall of his examining room, there were several WW1 vets who lived in my neighborhood when I was growing up -- and they were younger then than most WW2 vets are now. And now that whole generation is just about gone. Even though I didn't have any relatives who served in that conflict, I can't help but feel a bit of a personal sense of loss.

 

[jamespowers]

Good points. My grandfather served in the WWI era but never actually fought overseas unless you count Hawaii. He would be well over 100 today when I think about it he would be the same age as the man who just passed on. Kind of puts things in perspective.

 

[GeniusInTheLamp]

I also knew a number of World War I veterans, including my great-grandfather in Iowa (I also met his brother, a Navy veteran, at their last family reunion in 1983; they both died the following year). Another veteran ran the hardware store in town well into his 80's, and he recently had a school named after him. Another used to visit my father's store frequently.

Now there's just 14 left worldwide. Remarkably, 6 of them served for the United Kingdom, although only 3 live there now (2 live in Australia, and the last surviving female veteran lives in Canada).