The Last Known U.S. Military Veteran Of World War I, Buckles Turns 108 Today.

Frank Buckles in Charles Town, W.Va., near Harpers Ferry, with a 1917 photo of himself in Europe. In 1941, he was in Manila when the Japanese invaded the Philippines. He was among Western civilians taken prisoner and was held for 31/2 years. (LAURENCE KESTERSON / Staff Photographer)

'Our Last Living Link' To WWI -- Philly.com

Veteran Frank Buckles, a West Virginian who turns 108 today, "never thought I'd be the last."

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - World War I took place so long ago - in a lost world of cavalry horses and biplanes - that it's a little startling to meet Frank Buckles in the flesh.

The last known U.S. military veteran of World War I, Buckles turns 108 today.

On Tuesday, as a winter storm moved in from the west, he sat in a nice blue blazer in a warm corner of his day room, surrounded by history books. Outside, white wisps blew across the pale stubble on the 330-acre cattle farm where he settled quietly in 1954 after what already had been a life's worth of adventure in not one but two wars and as a commercial seafarer. Beyond lay the river town of Harpers Ferry and the Civil War battlefield at Antietam.

Buckles said he had always known he would grow quite old. His father lived to be 97. He had a sister who was 104. Other relatives on his mother's side lived to be 100.

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My Comment: What a shame that he is not at the Super Bowl today. That would have been the ultimate birthday gift to everyone .... maybe even to him .... but something tells me that he would be to shy to attend.