Happy Birthday Frank Buckles

Frank Buckles age 16

Frank Buckles turns 110 today. Think of it, this incredible man began his life journey in 1901.

He lied about his age and joined the Army when he was 16.

“I was just 16 and didn’t look a day older. I confess to you that I lied to more than one recruiter. I gave them my solemn word that I was 18, but I’d left my birth certificate back home in the family Bible. They’d take one look at me and laugh and tell me to go home before my mother noticed I was gone. Somehow I got the idea that telling an even bigger whopper was the way to go. So I told the next recruiter that I was 21 and darned if he didn’t sign me up on the spot! I enlisted in the Army on 14 August 1917.”

 He had tried to join the Marines but was denied. Too skinny!

During WWI he drove ambulances in France, and then escorted German POW’s back to Germany after the war.

In the 1940’s he was working for a shipping company in the Philippines and was captured by the Japanese in 1942, which resulted in more than three years as a POW.

An honorable patriot, soldier, citizen and the oldest World War I veteran in the world. We salute you.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyBtoxXLdas