Comments by "My Name Doesn’t Matter" (@mynamedoesntmatter8652) on "Last American WWI Survivor" video.

  1. WWI Veterans Robley Rex and Harry Patch both lived into their hundreds. Harry fought at Passchendaele, and in talking of losing “three mates,” the horrors of Passchendaele was replaying in his mind, easily seen in his eyes and echoing in his silent pause. Frank had an unusually extraordinary life, with many experiences that probably no one else’s life could compare. He kept the radio he built as a very young boy and remains as a treasured family heirloom. He began driving around age eight, describing the first family car in detail. Story after story he recounted to his daughter, whom he fathered around age fifty, but of the horrors of WWI where he served as an ambulance driver (age 16) he wouldn’t speak. He was a seasoned traveler, having taken advantage of the postwar economy boom, working in the shipping industry for some twenty plus years before serving in WWII. Frank’s documentary is a can’t-miss, don’t-miss, made over a period of six years beginning when Frank was 106. ‘Pershing’s Last Patriot’ should be a part of history that’s offered in schools to young and senior students. His incredible stories would fill pages and pages, his life was that large, that unique. He was “sharp as a tack” at 110 years, said Richard Thomas who interviewed and photographed Frank for the documentary. And he was exactly that, sharp and engaging as he detailed many stories of his life, his service, and of being the last American survivor of a Japanese internment camp. The story of the Japanese in the Philippines, the raid on Los Baños, Japanese atrocities, and three years of brutal conditions in the internment camp are highlighted. Frank also kept the tin cup he was given to use for the ‘mush’ fed them by the Japanese. Our men were starved, and dropped below a hundred pounds. Amazing documentary about a period that’s mostly overlooked and understated today, and we owe so much to remember these men who survived and perished in those times. We owe it to their memory to understand all that happened to them and to the civilians inside a war zone for what they all gave. Thank you, Frank Buckles. I’ll remember you.
    1