Just the other day, my friend Mitch was telling me that by the end of the year, the United States will likely have only one living veteran of the First World War. And today I saw this on the BBC:
France's oldest WW1 veteran dies
One of the last two surviving French veterans of World War I has died at the age of 110.
Louis de Cazenave, who fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, died in his sleep at his home in Brioude, central France, his son Louis said.
Mr de Cazenave's death leaves Lazare Ponticelli, also 110, as the last "poilu", or French WWI veteran.
You probably feel the way about this that I did--surprise that there are any surviving veterans. Wikipedia has a full entry on the remaining veterans, though it should be noted that many of those who are "veterans" never saw action, or, in the case of the US soldiers, ever set foot on the continent.
Update: Mitch informs me that we just lost a WWI veteran.
1 comment:
Hey you have to give Buckles some credit he actually went abroad. I think the reason I thought of this was that an American veteran just died a few weeks ago: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/21/america/NA-GEN-US-Obit-J.-Russell-Coffey.php
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