After all those problems to get in, Frank Buckles served in England and France, working mainly as a driver and a warehouse clerk. In his off-hours, he studied German, visited cathedrals, museums, tombs and bicycled the French countryside.
After Armistice Day, he helped return German prisoners to home and returned to the US in January 1920.
Back home, he lived in Oklahoma, then moved to Canada where he worked several different jobs before going to New York City where he worked in banking and advertising before getting into the shipping industry. Buckles went around the world while working for the White Star Line Steamship Co. and W.R. Grace & Co..
In 1941, while on business in the Philippines, he was captured by the Japanese and spent more than three years in prison camps.
"I was never actually looking for adventure," he once said. "It just came to me."
Now, that was one interesting life.
We'll Miss Him. --Cooter
2 comments:
Indeed. Back in the 70's I had a WWI& II veteran speak to my history classes. He was a colonel in the Army & and also served in intelligence in post WW II Germany. Oh the stories he had to tell....
I had a Pearl Harbor Survivor speak to my social studies classes one year.
Even though I taught georgraphy for many years and US History up to the Civil War, we always spent a day or two on the battle and war on the anniverary of Pearl Harbor.
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