Even after my own military service (including RVN) I never asked him about his experiences and I've regretted not doing that since the day he died.
Posted on 05/25/2008 6:22:56 AM PDT by kellynla
CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Numbers come precisely from the agile mind and nimble tongue of Frank Buckles, who seems bemused to say that 4,734,991 Americans served in the military during America's involvement in the First World War and 4,734,990 are gone. He is feeling fine, thank you for asking.
The eyes of the last doughboy are still sharp enough for him to be a keen reader, and his voice is still deep and strong at age 107. He must have been a fine broth of a boy when, at 16, persistence paid off and he found, in Oklahoma City, an Army recruiter who believed, or pretended to, the fibs he had unavailingly told to Marine and Navy recruiters in Kansas about being 18. He grew up on a Missouri farm, not far from where two eminent generals were born -- John "Black Jack" Pershing and Omar Bradley.
"Boys in the country," says Buckles, "read the papers," so he was eager to get into the fight over there. He was told that the quickest way was to train for casualty retrieval and ambulance operations. Soon he was headed for England aboard the passenger ship Carpathia, which was celebrated for having, five years earlier, rescued survivors from the Titanic.
Buckles never saw combat but "I saw the results." He seems vague about only one thing: What was the First World War about?
Before leaving England for France, he was stationed near Winchester College, where he noticed "Buckles" among the names that boys had carved in their desks. This ignited his interest in genealogy, which led him to discover that his ancestor Robert Buckles, born in Yorkshire on May 15, 1702, arrived at age 30 in what is now West Virginia.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
"Never Forget!"
"All paid some. Some paid all."
God bless my father, a "Doughboy".
Semper Fi, Kelly
Just don’t make them like they used to—and that is more and more true every year.
Of course, back then we had only the most rudimentary stages of our present day marxist gubmint schools—so not ALL of the population was conditioned and controlled!
Will is a great writer, but here he is clearly overshadowed by his subject, born only 18 years after the mid-point of 1776 and today.
20th century weaponry... 19th century tactics
When George Will is good, he can be excellent. Thanks for posting this.
It was about fighting a war to end the need for fighting any future wars; it was six wars ago.
Thanks for posting the article!
My grandfather fought in World War I, though he passed on in 1968. I have his dog tags.
He was an immigrant to the United States and his service earned him his US citzenship.
Thank You for this article
As did my grandfather.
Six years ago? It began 94 years ago. It was a war between Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire on one side and Imperial Russia, France, Britain and eventually the US on the other. It started when a Serb nationalist killed Archduke Ferdinand (Austro-Hungarian Empire) and Germany entered with some trepidation on the side of Austro-Hungary. Russia then came to the defense of their cultural ally, Serbia.
It is interesting that so many monarchs of the countries in question were related. I believe King George V, Czar Nicholas and the Kaiser were all related through Queen Victoria.
I though I said 6 wars ago.
Georgie, Nikki, and Willi were cousins. Met each other as children often. Big falling out when Willi wanted as big a navy as Georgie had; Nikki agreed with Georgie.
I read an article that said the Catholic church people wanted Willi out
Succinct summary, that...LOL! The real lesson there is for those who would read European history with annotations on the various "royal family histories" there might begin to be a basic understanding of the isolationist movement in the US prior to WW2. Of course, the royal cousin branch that included cousin FDR in the colonies helped the US sneak into the follow-on fray, aka Round 2 of the War to End All Wars, by way of the back door.
As T-Bird says, good summary.
Mostly Willi was the absolute worst kind of politician or officer: active and stupid.
Bismarck knew that Germany could dominate the Continent with properly planned alliances. He set one up with Austria and Russia. Britain, while not allied, had no real beefs with Germany. France would never be friendly, but was thoroughly isolated.
Bismarck also knew that Germany couldn’t simultaneously dominate Europe and compete with Britain for control of the seas. So he didn’t plan to try. Europe was a big enough chunk.
Willi wanted to dominate Europe AND the world. As you say, his naval program scared the tar out of the Brits, since a competitive navy would have no logical use other than against them. Since the Brits had no real Army, the RN was their only defense. He also managed to alienate the Russkies over inconsequential Balkans stuff, with the result that he got both the Brits and Russians (and eventually Italians) lined up against him.
Way to go, Willi!
My father was the same. He NEVER said a word about the war.
But then I don’t either... I spent 5 years trying to put the whole damn experience behind me; so I’m not interested in rehashing it.
And you probably keep a pretty closed mouth yourself.
Semper Fi,
Kelly
You’re right! Sorry for the misinterepretation. The reason for the US entering was to end all wars but how naive was that?
(( ping )) to another terrific article about Frank Buckles.
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