The last doughboy has died. Frank Buckles, the last surviving American veteran of World War I, died peacefully of natural causes at his farm in West Virginia at age 110, the Washington Post reports. Buckles, who was born in Missouri in 1901, lied about his age to get into the military at 16 and served as an ambulance driver in France. In World War II, he spent three and a half years as a civilian prisoner of war in the Philippines after being captured by the Japanese.
Buckles, who appeared before Congress in 2009 to make the case for creating a national World War I memorial, spent several years as the last survivor of the almost 5 million Americans who served in the conflict. "I knew there'd be only one someday," he said a few years ago. "I didn't think it would be me." Thanks to a special exemption ordered by George W. Bush in 2008, Buckles will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery despite not having a Medal of Honor, Purple Heart, or having been killed in action. (More World War I stories.)
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