America’s last World War I veteran was laid to rest with dignity
at Arlington Cemetery. Frank Buckles was age 110.
Sadly, his funeral plans were on hold for most of two
weeks, while Congressional leaders resisted pleas for Buckles to
lie in repose in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, symbolically
representing over 4 million Americans who served in the Great War.
Instead, he lay in repose at an Arlington Cemetery chapel, where
President Obama and Vice President Biden paid homage briefly before
his burial. The ultimate arrangements paid suitable honor to
Buckles. But the apparent last minute haggling seemed ridiculous.
Since he was the last surviving vet for nearly three years, there
should have been plenty of time for pre-arranging the final
plans.
Distinctively, Buckles’ interment was accompanied by a
wide phalanx of “Rolling Thunder” bikers, plus a contingent of
uniformed American Indian veterans in full feathered headgear, who
performed their own farewell rite. Mentally sharp and fairly active
until the end, Buckles took his role as America’s final
representative of the Great War seriously without taking himself
too seriously. Even at advanced age, he gladly accepted invitations
to ceremonies (so long as appropriate transportation was provided),
including visits to Mount Rushmore and the National World War I
Museum in Kansas City when he was age 107. His grave is
appropriately close to his former commander, General John “Black
Jack” Pershing.
In 2008, I had the honor to visit
Buckles at his 250 year old stone farm house on a hill in the West
Virginia panhandle. It was a very suitable stage for the last years
of an historically iconic figure. Buckles could remember his
grandfather, who in turn had recalled to him memories of his own
grandfather, a Revolutionary War veteran. Memories of two men
remarkably spanned the full history of the United
States.
World War I veterans were usually overshadowed by the
“greatest generation” of far more numerous World War II veterans.
And unlike Civil War veterans, the World War I vets never really
had their own powerful veterans group that spoke uniquely for
them. “Veterans of World War I in the USA” did start
in the late 1940s, gaining many members but not a lot of attention,
and Buckles was its last de facto “commander.” For
decades the politically formidable Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)
represented hundreds of thousands of Union veterans. And the United
Confederate Veterans (UCV) influentially spoke for Southern
combatants. In contrast, World War I veterans joined the Veterans
of Foreign Wars, founded after the Spanish American War, or the
American Legion, founded after World War I. Both would remain open
to veterans from all subsequent wars. The last Spanish
American War vet died in the early 1990s without
fanfare.
Of course the VFW and the Legion continue today, while the
GAR and UCV died with their last veterans. GAR annual jamborees at
their height attracted many tens of thousands, and the GAR marched
down Pennsylvania Avenue in force in 1915 and, in more enfeebled
numbers, in 1936. The UCV “invaded” the nation’s capital for their
own reunion in 1918 and, in much reduced numbers, in 1940.
Famously, nearly 2,000 northern and southern veterans, most then in
their 90s, met together for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of
Gettysburg in 1938. Many Americans age 70 and older can still
remember aged Civil War veterans as regular features of
Independence Day parades and Memorial Day ceremonies. The last GAR
reunion, with six ancient veterans, met in Indianapolis in 1949.
Ostensibly the last UCV reunion was in Norfolk in 1951. But records
now reveal likely none of the three who attended were actually
Confederate veterans.
America honored the passing of the purportedly last Civil
War veteran in 1959, who was a supposedly 117-year-old Confederate.
But actually the last dozen or so final professed Confederate
veterans who died in the 1950’s were probable imposters who
exaggerated their ages in earlier decades, especially during the
Depression, to qualify for Confederate pensions from their state
governments. As they aged into celebrities, they were trapped in
their stories. The last documented Confederate veteran died in 1951
at age 104. And the last documented Civil War veteran was Albert
Woolson, who passed in 1956 at age 106, or possibly as old as
109.
Woolson and Buckles were both understated Midwesterners
who joined the army as underage teenagers. Both served at the front
but neither saw combat. Buckles drove an ambulance, and Woolson was
a drummer boy. Both were distinguished final representatives for
millions of soldiers who had fallen before them. Both were the
final survivors of their armies for about three years. Neither had
planned to live in the spotlight, but both did so
dutifully.
Unlike Buckles, no significant controversy seems to have
accompanied Woolson’s funeral. He was interred in a family plot
after a Duluth, Minnesota funeral attended by 1,500. President
Eisenhower did not attend, though Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey
did. Naturally, the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” was sung. At
Buckles’ interment, an army band played “America the
Beautiful.”
The last World War II veteran will not leave this earth
for at least another 25 years or more. Hopefully preparations for
his or her send-off will be better settled than they were for the
last World War I vet. And hopefully that last survivor will live up
to his role with as much aplomb and honor as did Frank
Buckles.
