Frank Woodruff Buckles, born Wood Buckles, (February 1, 1901 – February 27, 2011) was one of the last three surviving World War I veterans and was the last living American veteran of the war. At the time of his death, Buckles was also the oldest verified World War I veteran in the world, and the second-oldest male military veteran in the world. Although not in the military at the time, Buckles spent the majority of World War II as a prisoner of war. After the world wars, he lived at Gap View Farm in Charles Town, West Virginia, with his wife who died in 1999, and his daughter. He was the Honorary Chairman of the World War I Memorial Foundation, as well as a Shriner, a Freemason and a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.Buckles was born on February 1, 1901 to a farming family in Bethany, Missouri. Between 1911 and 1916, Buckles attended school in Nevada, Missouri. He and his family subsequently moved to Dewey County, Oklahoma.
After the United States entered World War I, Buckles sought to enlist in the armed forces despite his youth. He was turned down by the Marine Corps because of his slight weight and for being under 21, and by the Navy for being flat-footed, which he was not. Buckles finally was successful in enlisting in the United States Army in August 1917, at the age of 16 years old.
In 1917, Buckles was sent to Europe on the RMS Carpathia, which had rescued RMS Titanic survivors five years earlier. While on the Carpathia, Buckles spoke with crew members who had taken part in the rescue of Titanic survivors. During the war Buckles served in England and France, driving ambulances and motorcycles for the Army's 1st Fort Riley Casual Detachment. After the Armistice in 1918, Buckles escorted prisoners of war back to Germany. Following his discharge in 1920, he attended the dedication of the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, in honor of those Americans who died in World War I, and met General John Pershing, who had been commander of all United States forces in France during the war. Buckles attended business school in Oklahoma City and then worked as Chief Purser for steamship lines in South America, Europe, and Asia. Buckles' future home, Gap View Farm, in the 1930s
As of 1942, Buckles had worked for the White Star, American President, and W.R. Grace shipping companies, and shipping business took him to Manila in the Philippines. He was captured there by the Japanese in 1942 and spent the next three and a half years in the Los Baños prison camp. He became malnourished, with a weight below 100 pounds, and developed beriberi, yet led his fellow inmates in calisthenics. He was rescued on February 23, 1945.
After World War II, he moved to San Francisco, where he married Audrey Mayo in 1946. In the mid-1950s, he retired from steamship work and bought the 330-acre (1.3 km2) Gap View Farm in West Virginia where he raised cattle. His family had first settled around that area in 1732, and Buckles was descended from a Revolutionary War soldier. Another ancestor was a Civil War veteran,[15] and Buckles was active for many years in the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
In 1973, nearly all of Frank Buckles' military service record was destroyed in the National Personnel Records Center fire. Some of the record was salvaged, consisting mostly of burned pay records, and since has been classified as a high profile record by the Military Personnel Records Center. His wife died in 1999 and their daughter moved back to the farm to care for him.
For his service during World War I, Buckles received (from the United States Government) the World War I Victory Medal and qualified for four Overseas Service Bars. In 1941 he retroactively qualified for the the Army of Occupation of Germany Medal due to his post war service in Europe during the year 1919. In 1999, Buckles was further honored by French president Jacques Chirac when Buckles was awarded France's Légion d'honneur. During the 1980s, Buckles may have applied for the Prisoner of War Medal for his World War II incarceration, but at the time of his imprisonment by the Japanese, Buckles was a civilian and thus did not qualify under the criteria for the medal.
In 2007, the United States Library of Congress included Buckles in its Veterans History Project, which includes audio, video, and pictorial information on Buckles' experiences in both world wars, including a full 148-minute video interview. In April of 2008, a section of West Virginia Route 9, which passes by his Gap View Farm home, was named and dedicated in his honor by then-West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin. That following month, on May 25, 2008, Buckles received the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Gold Medal of Merit at the Liberty Memorial. He sat for a portrait taken by David DeJonge that will hang in the National World War I Museum, as "the last surviving link."
Buckles received the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry's Knight Commander of the Court of Honour (KCCH) on September 24, 2008. The KCCH is the last honor bestowed by the Southern Jurisdiction prior to the 33°. The ceremony was hosted by Ronald Seale, 33°, Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A. The keynote address was provided by James Peake, United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
