The Last Link The Incredible Life of Frank Buckles

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]In 1917, a 16-year-old farm boy from Missouri decided he was going to fight in the First World War. The Marines said no. The Navy said no. He walked into an Army recruiting office and told them he was 18. Left his birth certificate at home in the Family Bible. They believed him. His name was Frank Buckles. He served in France, drove ambulances through the devastation of the Western Front, was there when the guns fell silent on November 11th, 1918. He came home, built a life, became a civilian.

[00:00:30]Then in December 1941, he was working for a shipping company in the Philippines when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The very next day, Japanese forces captured him in Manila. He spent 3 and 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in the Los Banos prison camp. He was rescued on February 23rd, 1945. He came home again, married, had a daughter, moved to a cattle farm in West Virginia.

[00:00:52]He drove his tractor until he was 106.

[00:00:55]In 2008, at 107 years old, Frank Buckles became the last surviving American veteran of World War I. 4.7 million Americans had served in that war. He was the last one left. He said, "I always knew somebody had to be last. I just never thought it would be me." He spent his final years fighting for one thing, a national memorial for WWWI veterans in Washington, DC. He testified before Congress in 2009, 108 years old, the oldest person ever to testify before Congress. He met with presidents. He wrote letters. He gave interviews. He carried the memory of 4.7 million American veterans on the shoulders of a 110year-old man. Frank Buckles died on February 27th, 2011 at his home in West Virginia. He was 110 years old. The last American veteran of the First World War, gone. The National WWI Memorial in Washington DC finally opened in April 2021, 10 years after Frank Buckles died, still fighting for