The passing of an era

Frank Buckles, America's last living link to our dough boy past had died.

Frank Buckles, the last living U.S. World War I veteran, has died, a spokesman for his family said Sunday. He was 110.

Buckles "died peacefully in his home of natural causes" early Sunday morning, the family said in a statement sent to CNN late Sunday by spokesman David DeJonge.

Buckles marked his 110th birthday on February 1, but his family had
earlier told CNN he had slowed considerably since last fall, according his
daughter Susannah Buckles Flanagan, who lives at the family home near Charles Town, West Virginia.

I first learned of Frank a couple of years ago, when his story was told by Stuart Lutz in his book The Last Leaf. This morning as I contemplate the inevitable, I cannot help but think about our WWII veterans who are dying at a rate of fifteen hundred a day now. In a few more years, there will be but one of them left also.

Rest in peace Frank. You made a difference both in the war and almost one hundred years later as your story was told. May God now hold you in his loving arms.

Semper Fi