Fred Buckles - Last Man's Club
 

January 31, 2011 Last surviving World War I vet has ties to region

By Andy Ostmeyer Joplin Globe Staff Writer

The Joplin Globe Mon Jan 31, 2011, 11:30 AM CST
WALKER, Mo. — The nation’s last surviving veteran of World War I — a man with ties to Southwest Missouri — will be remembered Tuesday on his 110th birthday.

Frank Buckles was born in Bethany, Mo., on Feb. 1, 1901, not far from the birthplace of Missouri’s own Black Jack Pershing. When he was still a boy, Buckles’ moved with his family to Walker in Vernon County, where he attended school.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 16 and served until the end of the war.

But that was not the end of his adventures.

Buckles later traveled the world working for the shipping company White Star Line and was in Manila in the Philippines in 1941 when the Japanese invaded. He became a prisoner of war for more than three years, and was in the infamous Los Banos prison camp, where he was rescued in 1945.