Last of a generation.

[msmrx57]

And sadly this got very little news.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/27/wwi.veteran.death/index.html

[CorsePerVita]

RIP to the fellow. 110 years. He's seen OVER an entire century, served his country, watch things change and no doubt watched entire generations grow up and have more generations.

One can only hope he passed on proud, peacefully and happy. Respect. Rest in peace.

[Munty]

I have to confess I don't watch much news but I haven't heard anything of this story, even from friends who are usually to be counted on for 'have you seen x and y in the paper today?'

It's very sad to lose such a key player of the world's history and I feel somehow the war will seem a lot less real to newer generations when there are no longer any remaining participants with us.

That said of course these guys did an incredible thing and saved all of us who are alive today from a very different future. Once a year we commemorate these men and their comrades fallen in battle, but every day we remember their sacrifice and what it's meant for those who survived. We will never forget.

[NightrainSrt4]

I can't imagine to have seen over a century of time pass, nonetheless the one with the most technological advancements to date. I only can hope I can see and experience as much as he has, although I am positive there are plenty of things he has seen that I wish I never have to. Rest in peace.

[xr4man]

i did actually see this on the news last night. amazing to think how much he's seen and experienced.

[mDust]

I can't imagine to have seen over a century of time pass, nonetheless the one with the most technological advancements to date. I only can hope I can see and experience as much as he has, although I am positive there are plenty of things he has seen that I wish I never have to. Rest in peace.

Exactly this. From mass produced cars to airplanes to space travel and the moon. Plastic and other new materials. Legitimization of medicine. Civil rights. Radio, TV, computers and electronics. Silent films, Talkies, Movies, Beta Max, VHS, Laser Disk, DVD, Blu Ray. The Great War, WWII, Korea, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, the Cold War, Desert Storm, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The rise of extreme partisanship...
A hundred years changes a lot. I hope I can live over a similar span of time.

[x88x]

The last of an era that I fear will be increasingly forgotten as time goes on. RIP Frank Buckles.

I can't even imagine what is must have been like to live through all that he did. As others have mentioned, the amount of technical, social, etc achievement that occurred over his lifetime is simply astonishing.

[artoodeeto]

I have a little personal experience with someone this long-lived - my great grandmother, who passed away in 1994 (when I was 17), was born in 1896. I was lucky that toward the end of her life she lived close to me, and my family visited her a lot.

I didn't fully appreciate it at the time, but it blows me away to think that one of her earliest memories was sitting on her dad's shoulders watching a parade...celebrating the end of the Spanish-American war! Talk about a forgotten conflict. Truly amazing to think that when she was born the Wright bros. hadn't gotten off the ground, and when she moved to CA toward the end of her life she came out here on a commercial airliner 6.5 miles up in the sky...

oh yeah...and for classical music buffs out there...Brahms was still alive when my great grandmother was born. Granted, their lives overlapped less than a year I think...but still.

[x88x]

I have a little personal experience with someone this long-lived - my great grandmother, who passed away in 1994 (when I was 17), was born in 1896. I was lucky that toward the end of her life she lived close to me, and my family visited her a lot.

This thread actually made me think of my great grandmother too...made me regret a little that I haven't really talked to her much. She's still alive, I think 103 or 104 this year? And from what my grandparents tell me, still mobile and mentally alert. Heck, she was entirely self-sufficient until almost her 100th birthday. Gives me a little hope as to my own longevity. :D Unfortunately, she lives down in northern AL, so not like I could just pop over and see her.

[artoodeeto]

You should though - I'm sorry to admit that I didn't always want to visit my great grandmother, but I have so many great memories now of those visits. Especially if she's still mentally alert, mine was too (in fact, one of our favorite stories was when she fell and couldn't stand up again...paramedics came out, and said her heart rate was a little high. She says, well of *course* it's high with so many cute guys standing here :D she was only, oh, 97 or so at the time LOL). But yeah, try and make the time to visit. It'll likely make her really happy too. :)