On the recordNovember 3, 2011
As we approach Veterans Day, the day we honor those who served and came back home, I want to talk about a very special veteran. Frank Buckles, Jr., when he was 16 years of age--some say 15--during the beginning of the great World War I, wanted to join the military and go overseas. Remember they sang that song, those doughboys, when they went overseas, George Cohan's song ``Over There.'' And they wouldn't come back until it was over ``over there.'' The war started. He tried to join the Marines; they wouldn't take him because he was not 18. He tried different recruiters. He finally found an Army recruiter. He says he just told the recruiter a whopper--that he was 21. The recruiter took him, swore him in; and the fastest way he could get to Europe and get into action was to drive an ambulance. This is a photograph of Frank Buckles, Jr., when he served in the great World War I. After that war was over with, he came back home, although 116,000 Americans did not come back home. Four million of them served in World War I. Frank Buckles, Jr., joined up as a seaman on a merchant ship. He was in the Philippines when World War II started, and he was captured by the Japanese and held in a prisoner of war camp for 3\1/2\ years. He was rescued, came back home to America, went to his farm in West Virginia, and he worked on the farm until he was 109 years old. Frank Buckles, Jr., died this year at the age of 110.…
