Another showcases commendations from Congress and the West Virginia governor, as well as a photograph of French President Jacques Chirac pinning the French Legion of Honor medal on Buckles' jacket. The life of Frank Buckles in some ways tracks a timeline for the rise of America as a superpower. He has been witness to it all, and he is one of very few living to tell about it.
At age 106, Buckles is one of only three known living American veterans of World War I, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. "For many years, I would read the figures in The Torch a veterans magazine in two columns -- one was the number of 4.7 million-something veterans who served, and the other, which kept going down, was the number of us that were still alive," Buckles said.
"I knew one day it would come to this. But I didn't think I would be one of the few still around to talk about it." Buckles is the youngest of the three known living U.
S. World War I veterans. His voice is raspy, he has difficulty walking, and he needs help getting dressed each morning.
But his mind is keen, and the memories of his two years in Europe during the war remain clear. On Monday, Frank Buckles will serve as a marshal for the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington, D.C.
, sharing the starring role with actor Gary Sinise. White House officials also offered to give Buckles a tour on Memorial Day, but his doctor advised that the parade was more than enough excitement for one day. Buckles said he doesn't mind all the attention.
It's a salute to his generation, and he happens to be the only one of his contemporaries available to take a bow. But he said he is concerned about whether he is the right guy for the parade. "What are you supposed to do when you lead a parade?
" Buckles asked. Besides Buckles, the VA has identified the only other living World War I veterans as Harry Landis, a 107-year-old living in Sun City Center, Fla., and Russell Coffey, a 108-year-old in North Baltimore, Ohio.
After the last Navy veteran and the last American woman to serve in World War I died days apart in March, the VA made a public appeal to identify any other veterans of the war, but found no others, said VA spokesman Matt Burns. While World War I marked the decline of the British Empire and led to the remapping of the Mideast, "The Great War" has largely become the forgotten war of American history, said Eli Paul, director of the newly opened National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Mo. Canada and Britain will mark the end of a generation with a tribute after the last World War I veteran dies.
There are four or five living veterans in Britain and at least one in Canada, according to historians. In the U.S.
, the VA and historians have only begun talking about how to commemorate World War I veterans. Paul said the story of "the war to end all wars" has been eclipsed by the "Greatest Generation" of Americans who fought in World War II. "These World War I veterans raised a generation that did them one better," said Paul, who added that museum visitors regularly comment that they hadn't realized the scope or importance of the war.
"They got overshadowed in this country on Dec. 7, 1941, and never got out of the shadow." For years, Buckles rarely told strangers about his war experiences, said his daughter, Susannah Flanagan.
"When I was little, I would ask him to tell me a bedtime story, and instead of reading to me he would tell me a story about the war or his time as a little boy in Missouri or Oklahoma," she said. "But he really didn't talk to anyone about it but my mother and me.
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