Friday, November 12, 2010

Last Living US World War I Veteran Pushing for a Memorial.

From November 11th CNN "Last Living U.S. WWI vet pushes for Great War memorial" by Paul Courson.

Frank Buckles is 109 and will turn 110 in February. During World War I he was a corporal and drove an ambulance in Europe.

For the last several years on Veterans Day, he would stop at Arlington National Cemetery outside of Washington, DC, to visit the grave of General John "Black Jack" Pershing, the supreme US commander in the conflict.

He would also visit Washington DC's World War I Memorial on the National Mall which he has been pushing in a bill to pass Congress naming both the DC site and one in Kansas City, Missouri, as the national monuments to the War to End All Wars.

However, the bill, called the Frank Buckles Memorial Act, has been stalled for months and he is not getting any younger. It is hoped that it will pass before he dies.


IMPROVEMENTS

Recently, National Park Service Officials led a tour of the DC site which is looking better than it has in years. Repairs have been done on a neglected walkway, the deteriorating dome and marble columns have been fixed. The whole memorial has also been cleaned, broken flagstone repaired and overgrown holly trees which obscured the site from view have been cut down.

Here's Hoping That the Bill Passes Before Mr. Buckles Is No Longer with Us.

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