Frank Buckles and the whole world marked a milestone on Feb. 1, 2011—his 110th birthday. A short month later, he was gone.
Buckles, the last surviving U.S. veteran of World War I, passed away at his West Virginia home on Feb. 27.
During his final years, Buckles, as a living representative of his comrades in arms, dedicated himself to ensuring their stories would not go untold.
Buckles twice sat for interviews—at the ages of 100 and 103—for the Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center.
He provided original documents and photographs for the permanent collections of the Veterans History Project and recounted on video the tales of his service in World War I and his experiences as a civilian prisoner of the Japanese during World War II.
Buckles was one of a kind in that he outlived all of his World War I comrades. But in 1917, he was much like many other young fellows: Buckles said he “bluffed” about his age to enlist in the U.S. Army.
He was only 16. He then pestered his officers to be shipped out to France. He drove motorcycles, cars, and ambulances in England and France, and during the occupation he guarded German prisoners.
After World War I, Buckles went to work for the White Star steamship line, but his service to his nation was not over. He was in Manila on business in December 1941 when the Japanese attacked. Buckles spent more than three years as a prisoner of war at the city’s University of Santo Tomas.
For the Veterans History Project, Buckles recalled for posterity moving stories of his experiences in two world wars: Passing through the mess lines twice so that he could share food with hungry French children; sharing wine with French soldiers singing “La Marseillaise” as they headed back to the front; his time in a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines during World War II (a photograph of an elderly Buckles holding the chipped metal drinking cup he used during his internment resides in the Library’s collection).
There is much to explore in the Buckles collection and in the more than 70,000 other stories in the Veterans History Project archives.
Buckles entrusted the Library with his story, where it will be accessible to current and future generations.
The Frank Buckles collection can be accessed by clicking the “search the veterans collections” link at www.loc.gov/vets/.
