Oldest known U.S. World War I survivor dies at 109

[aussiewannabe]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 96806.html

[C]

Not a bad innings at 109.

[beaky]

Not ever shipping out for "The Great War" certainly improved the odds for him... every time I think about the thousands who died "over there" I'm thankful that my grandfather made it home from France in one piece.

I like his comment on being known for his age rather than his deeds: "Even a prune can grow old..."

[ozzy72]

A remarkable innings but how can they say he is a WWI survivor if he didn't actually fight?

[H]

We have two more left, one is in Florida (108, I think).

8-)

[C]

We have two more left, one is in Florida (108, I think).

8-)

Harry Landis

There are a handful still left in the UK, including a founder member of the RAF, Henry Allingham, 111, and the last survivor of the trenches, Harry Patch, 109. Having said that, around 950,000 citizens of Britain and its Commonwealth never returned...

Looking at Wiki, the US has 3 living veterans (one of whom got to England and was Canadian at the time, the other two were still in training), 2 more who joined pre-Versailles, and 2 others who claim to have fought (one of whom was only 14 in 1918)...

[beaky]

A remarkable innings but how can they say he is a WWI survivor if he didn't actually fight?

Well, I guess he counts as a surviving soldier who enlisted during the war... but I see your point.