WWI veteran dies, but wars go on
World War I veteran Frank Buckles Credit: AP
Frank Buckles, who died Sunday at the age of 110, was the last American veteran of World War I, a conflict billed as the war to end all wars.
It didn't quite work out that way. On the contrary, we've seen enough conflicts since to give us "last surviving veterans" to write about for decades to come.
Yet for all the world's turmoil, massive global clashes of the kind in which Buckles drove an ambulance haven't happened since World War II - in some sense a continuation of his own war on a larger stage. Some historians contend wars between developed nations are a thing of the past. Today most armed conflicts are internal.
Of those who took part in World War I, a conflict that claimed the lives of nearly 14 million soldiers, Buckles was among the luckiest. He not only survived, but outlived every one of the other 4.7 million Americans who joined our armed forces in 1917-18. Apparently only two other survivors of the conflict remain, one in Britain and the other in Australia.
Buckles didn't live to see peace ultimately prevail. But he did live to see a lot of progress. We've had no more world wars since 1945. And after surviving a bloodbath that combined 20th century technology with 19th century tactics, Buckles lived long enough to have his death announced on his website.
