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| WW I veterans number less than 50 in the U.S. |
| 2005-11-12 |
| loyd Brown remembers Armistice Day in 1918 as few - ever so few - veterans can. "For the servicemen there were lots of hugs and kisses," recalls Brown, of Charlotte Hall, Maryland, a teenage seaman aboard the battleship USS New Hampshire, in port stateside when the fighting stopped. "We were so happy that the war was over." Now 104, Brown adds, "There's not too many of us around any more." No one knows exactly how many of America's World War I veterans will celebrate Veterans Day, which marks the armistice of November 11, 1918, that ended what then was considered the Great War. An estimated 2 million Americans served in Europe after the U.S. entered the war in 1917. Today, the Veterans Affairs Department lists just eight veterans as receiving disability benefits or pension compensation from service in World War I. It says a few dozen other veterans of the war probably are alive, too, but the government does not keep a comprehensive list. The Census Bureau stopped asking for data about those veterans years ago. Using a report of 65,000 alive in 1990 as a baseline, the VA estimates that no more than 50 remain, perhaps as few as 30... |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #5 Erich Maria Remarque, author of "All Quiet On The Western Front", also wrote a little-known sequel called "The Road Back", showing the despair in the lives of the same soldiers, returning home to Weimar Germany. I highly recommend it. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-11-12 16:37 |
| #4 When I was growing up, I can remember one or two from the Spanish-American War. Now they're all gone. Soon these men will be, too. Rest easy; you've earned it. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2005-11-12 14:17 |
| #3 Yes, they lived through hell, God bless them. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2005-11-12 12:07 |
| #2 The WWI vets are truely the last of a historic generation of vets. They fought the horrific trench wars of attrition, suffering gas attacks and diease. Honorable warriors who were really the last to define the battlefild in terms like FLOT, and where attacking the enemy meant with fixed bayonetts. God bless them. |
| Posted by: 49 pan 2005-11-12 11:50 |
| #1 They are only six in France. Could be that unhealthy American food leads to longer lives. |
| Posted by: JFM 2005-11-12 11:26 |