WHAT IS MEMORIAL DAY ABOUT? THE LAST LIVING WORLD WAR I VETERAN

We have been introduced to Frank Buckles, the last surviving American veteran of World War I. This is the type of person that we are honoring on Memorial Day. He currently lives in West Virginia.

One interesting thing about this veteran is that he is currently active in memorializing World War I veterans and something is coming up in the future with reference to this veteran. For the past three years Buckles has been recounting his story to a filmmaker who is in the process of making a film about Buckles. Not only will World War I veterans be honored with Memorial Day, but a film coming directly from the memory of someone who lived it will be released for public consumption.

Buckles joined the army in 1917 when he was 16 years old; the war had already been going on for three years. During his two years of service in England and France Buckles was an ambulance driver and also transported prisoners of war after the war ended. But it doesn’t matter what veterans did during the war, they had important roles to play during the war and deserve to be honored during Memorial Day.

Buckles was not in a combat situation during the first world war and was discharged in 1919, but he had a much harder time during World War II when he was not even a soldier. During this time he was taken as a prisoner by the Japanese when he was working in the Philippines and spent 3 ½ years in a prison camp beginning in 1942. This experience, even though he was not a soldier at the time also qualifies him to be honored on Memorial Day.

Buckles has been honored with awards several times for his service during World War I. First he received both the Victory Medal and the Army of Occupation of Germany Medal from the United States. The country of France also awarded him their Legion d’honneur. Much later, in 2008, he was awarded with the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Gold Medal of Merit. All these medals were well deserved, but the yearly honor of Memorial Day will never be too much for these veterans.

WHAT IS MEMORIAL DAY ABOUT?

Memorial Day is always the last Monday of the month of May; this year it will be May 31. You may have an opportunity to go to a picnic or some other type of celebration and have a nice day off, but it is also an occasion to remember what this holiday is about. The holiday of Memorial Day was to honor all the veterans past and present of the wars of the United States; there have been several.

This country needs a holiday like Memorial Day because there have been so many wars throughout its history. This country began with a war, the Revolutionary War. This war was fought to become independent from the British Empire. When the war was won a new country was born. Not long after that it was necessary to fight the war of 1812 also against the British; once this war was ended it was definite at that point that the United States would remain independent from the United Kingdom.

After the War of 1812, the British were no longer a problem for the Americans. They could turn their attention to other areas of the land. The Southwest was where the Mexican-American War was fought which brought a large part of the Southwest into the United States. Then in the 1860s the Civil War was fought between the northern states and the southern states; the result of this war was that the union was not broken up and slavery was abolished.

The Spanish-American War was fought at the end of the 19th century and this is when the United States gained control of several islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific. World War I, the first war of the 20th century, was fought in Europe. Most of the veterans of these wars are obviously no longer living. The only verified American veteran of World War I, Frank Woodruff Buckles, is 109.

The veterans of these wars are the people that we are to honor on Memorial Day. When you are enjoying your holiday, be sure to take the time out to think of the people who fought in these wars because they sacrificed so much for the country. There will be Memorial Day sales and it is okay to partake in them as long as you take time out to remember the veterans.