ShareThisBy LISA HOFFMAN
Friday, November 17, 2006
It was 86 years ago that Frank Buckles, then a young World War I corporal, crossed paths with the greatest general of the time.
At an Oklahoma City reception, Buckles, then 18 and newly back from two years at war in France, caught the eye of Gen. John "Blackjack" Pershing, the commander of U.S. forces in Europe.
The mighty general, a stickler for discipline, summoned Buckles from the throng to compliment his impeccable military demeanor and to chew the fat. It was a moment Buckles has cherished ever since.
On Saturday, Buckles, now 105, traveled to Arlington National Cemetery to pay tribute to Pershing at his simple grave. As one of only a dozen known World War I veterans still alive, Buckles is likely to be the last soldier who served under Pershing to personally honor the historic leader at his final resting place.
In a wheelchair but sharp-eyed, his face rosy and smooth, Buckles wore a half smile but didn't speak during an hour-long ceremony that drew the Army's "Pershing's Own" band, several contingents of veterans groups, and about 100 others.
And while the purpose of the event was to honor Pershing, it was Buckles who drew the most attention. Attired in a black suit and wearing a black beret, he had come by car earlier in the day from the Charles Town, W.Va., farm he still helps run, with his daughter and two friends. Buckles wasn't part of the official program, but he fast became the focus.
As word spread who Buckles was, cameras came out and people gathered to see him up close. It was hard for him to hear what the curious were saying, and his voice is airy with age, but he graciously posed for photos and shook hands.
One of his admirers was Jacob Cochran, 10, of Medford, Ore., who is a member of a "Young Marines" youth unit and determined to one day become a full-fledged leatherneck. Cochran, who already has mastered the posture of a Marine at attention, said he will treasure the autograph Buckles gave him. He promises to learn all he can about World War I.
"I'm very pleased, ma'am," Cochran told a reporter.
If he researches Buckles, he will learn the Missouri-born man, at 16, so wanted to fight in World War I, that he tried to enlist at that age. The Marines turned him down twice because he was two years too young. The Navy said no, as well. Finally, an Army recruiter signed him up.
No sooner was he in uniform then he signed up to be in the ambulance service, which his sergeant said was the quickest route to get to the war in France. He served two years there, ferrying the wounded and dead. After the Nov. 11, 1918 armistice, he helped transport German prisoners of war back home.
"We truly believed this was the war to end all wars," Buckles said in a recent interview.
After the Great War ended, he got a civilian job with a steamship company in Toronto. In 1940, he was assigned to the Philippines, where he was captured and held for more than three years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. He says he survived by helping other prisoners stay fit and hopeful.
U.S. paratroopers with the 11th Airborne Division parachuted in and rescued him and the other captives in February 1946. "The skies opened up and the angels dropped from the sky," is the way Buckles describes the moment.
He married later that year and eight years later moved to West Virginia, where he took up farming at age 53.
Still possessed of a whip-sharp mind, Buckles credits good genes, a lifetime of hard work (he mowed his hayfields on a tractor until he was 103) and an unwavering attention to fitness as perhaps some of the reason he has lived so long.
In recent years, Buckles had mused about making the trip to Arlington to pay his final respects to Pershing, a figure of immense historic stature after WWI. He says he hopes Americans will not forget the general, or the war that molded them both.
"It was a long time ago, now," Buckles said. "A long time."
