And then there were none ...........

[Stinky The Clown]

I was born in the immediate post WWII era, in the late 1940s. Back then, there were still living Civil War vets.

I recall hearing about the passing of the final Civil War vet, but I'm not sure when that was. Then the passing of the last Civil War widow.

Today there are, worldwide, fewer than 30 surviving WWI vets, and a few more who served but not in combat. Fewer than 10 are Americans.

My Dad was a member of the Greatest Generation, the WWII vets.- He served in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. There are fewer and fewer of them each day. I'm not sure of the numbers, but I recall hearing someplace that they're leaving us at a rate of hundreds a month. Think about it. A kid who was, let's say, 17 in 1945 would be 79 today.

Then there's my generation. Viet Nam and Viet Nam era vets are getting to be old geezers, too. Hell, I'm 60 and I got off active duty in 1969.

I have no idea why this occurred to me right now, but it has been on my mind for a few weeks.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. There's 5 US WWI vets left...

My Grandpa served on the USS Frederick (ACR-9/CA-9) during the Great War. Of course, he's not one of the remaining vets.:(

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surviving_veterans_of_World_War_I

I've been monitoring the Wikipedia page listed the only survivors left from WWI...

[Faygo Kid]

2. I am monitoring that page, too - incredible that so little attention is being paid

Thanks to both you and the poster. This is history. Incredible that I was born (1951) when a very few Civil War vets were still alive; imagine a child born in 2007 when WWI vets are still alive - and living to the 22nd century. This is amazing stuff. I am hopeful tonight that a child may make it - Live Earth gives me hope about a new generation. Each century has seen its share of young leaders.

[Rene]

3. I trade emails every day with 2 WWII vets who live in Pensacola Fla

One was the Pilot on my Dad's B29 that they flew all over the islands of the Pacific; Saipan, Tinian etc....on up to Japan. The other was in the Navy and was at Pearl Harbor. The Pilot will be 90 on August 8th. There are 4 guys from that plane still living and 1 crew member. The ACTUAL plane has been restored and is at Marsh Air Base in Riverside California. One of the survivors has been able to see it.
All the men and their wives stayed in touch with each other for all their lives.....and my Dad always spoke of his love for all the men on the crew...and the harrowing times they went thru. There were actually 3 different "Three Feathers" planes....2 were damaged and replaced.
My Sister and the Pilot's daughter saw the plane and sat in their Dad's seats recently ---60 years later.

These two guys are absolutely amazing......VERY astute on the Internet....send the best jokes, web sites, Operas/Music, NASA photos, Historical info, Medical info, etc.....they research some great stuff and send it on to Ed's family....his Tribal Council.

Another in our email group is a man who was charged with the restoration of the plane in the late stages.
A woman had started the project and brought it really along....but was replaced toward the end.

[Pierogi_Pincher]

20. That's so nice to hear!

I know my Dad kept in touch w/ buddies that went off to serve the same time he did. He was Navy from '41-'45, IIRC. Philippines. His ship got collateral damage, and he wouldn't recount much more than to say he thot it was his 'time'. Rescued others in the water--some very seriously injured. The recollection brought distress and tearing up. He left his earthly home in 1960 at age 45 from an aortic aneurysm. Died instantly while my mom tried to revive him. It was an affect on my life, needless to say, to this day. I have no siblings which didn't help.
One Memorial Day a few years ago, I looked up his ship online and cried while reading. Still have their letters and mementos he brought home that are scrapbooked. My parents got married and he shipped shortly after.
Altho I am a pacifist by my spirit's choice, I nonetheless honor and salute the brave ones that serve. War is hell.

P_P

[SaveElmer]

4. This subject always blows my mind...shows how young our country is...

The last Union Civil War Vet Alfred Woolson from my native state of Minnesota died in 1956. The last Civil War Vet, a confederate named Walter Williams died in 1959. The last widow of a Civil War vet died in 2004...and believe it or not there are still a number of children of Civil War Vets still alive...

Some are still receiving a pension from their fathers service in that war...

The last Revolutionary War pensioner died in the early 1900's...

My Grandmother died in 2005, was born when Clara Barton and Wyatt Earp were still alive, and Civil War vets were entering middle age. She was born 4 years after the Wright Brother flight and lived to see the space program land on the moon and send probes to every planet in the solar system...

It always just boggles my mind some of this stuff...

[pansypoo53219]

5. i fear

the day anybody who remembers FDR are all gone. and the depression. and the vets.

[aquart]

6. Did you take a tape recorder to your dad

and say, "It's North Africa, pop. How did you start your day?" And go from there. We know about the big battles. It's the tiny details we are losing.

Look up your father's unit online. They are looking to complete their records to get as much information as possible while there's still time.

My uncle was a skip bomber based in North Africa. When he died in February, we found a file with a paper from the Army Air Force listing every mission he ever flew. But we still have no information on a mutiny that occurred, with an officer being transferred as a result. But we are gathering together everything we can find and forwarding it to the people who are keeping the memories alive online.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. My Dad had three stories he told about the war .....

... all funny. He never spoke about anything else in the war except one incident when he met his older brother in Rome. My Dad was still (mock) angry that he had nothing to wear but worn out fatigues while he brother had a nice, pressed dress uniform.

I have a true treasure, however. My mother and father wrote frequently while he was away. She saved all his letters back to her. Every one of them. They're on that special V-Mail stationary that was like onion skin to save weight and bulk. Quite a bit of it has lines or words excised with a razor by the censors.

There must be four or five hundred of them. He shipped out in 1942 and got home in 1945.

[frogcycle]

10. wow ! you too!

my parents met on a blind date - he then went straight to Iceland, then the Pacific. they corresponded throughout the War; got engaged 3.5 years later, the second time they ever saw each other, married a couple weeks later. She died just prior to their 50th anniversary.

They both kept all the letters, and I have every one of them.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. They make you cry, don't they?

They're very special. As the oldest kid, I got them when Mom died. (Dad died 10 years before her.) I made photocopies of all of them for my brother.

[frogcycle]

16. I can't look at them

i don't know what I'll do with them.

[aquart]

18. One: Those letters were censored.

Two: Those sweet boys lied. We have letters like that from my uncle. Sounded like he was away at camp.

The beauty of asking how their day began, is that it gets the memory going beyond the rehearsed stories.

And you can't imagine what you'll find out that way.

[ben_meyers]

8. And imagine this

According to the Department of Defense, 19 million WWII veterans lived in the United States at the end of 2002; and 1,500 WWII veterans die every day.

[frogcycle]

9. you prompt memories

i posted this some time back on a website I built for my high school class

http://www.dbc3.com/bhs_65/bhs_newspaper/dad.html

[Stinky The Clown]

13. That article mentions how the Korean War Memorial was built after the Viet Nam Memorial

The World War II Memorial was built after **all** of them.

[frogcycle]

14. I know

It was not even built yet when we took that trip.

[Arugula Latte]

11. What a feeling that would be to be one of the few left.

From hundreds of thousands, just a handful remain. Astonishing to be one of those ...

Thinking about time always freaks me out. When I was born in the mid-1960s, a very, very old person living then could have been alive during the Civil War (a baby, yes, but alive nonetheless). And when that person was born, a very, very old person could have remembered the Revolutionary War.

[frogcycle]

15. My dad knew his great-grandmother

who was born b4 civil war; HER father married three times, she was born late in his life; HE was born b4 1800. So that makes me 4 steps from 1776 in the Kevin Bacon game.

[Arugula Latte]

17. Whoa.

That is trippy :hippie:

[Odin2005]

19. The dwindling members of the so-called "Lost" Generation.

Or the "Generation of '1914" as the call then in Europe The generation of Truman, Ike, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernst Hemingway, Babe Ruth, Norman Rockwell, Buckminster Fuller, Humphrey Bogart, Al Capone, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Generation

And now the WW2 Generation is fading away as well. :cry:

[Stinky The Clown]

21. They must be giants

The names you cite ...... it is as if they're still here. Bucky Fuller resonates most for me. I always idolized him, from the time I first learned about the things he thought up. Fascinating. Pure genius.

Dymaxion.