In the News: End of an Era

[unforth]

Last British Veteran of WWI Trench Warfare Dies at 111 - read his story, it's pretty amazing, and very sad.

According to the article, he may be the very lest to have fought - there is one Australian who "may have" fought in the Navy who is now 108, and an American ambulance driver, also 108. There are no remaining French or German veterans. The other two oldest veterans also died this year - one just last week - Henry Allingham, who was 113 and the oldest man in Britain.

Once the last witnesses to history pass away, it's up to us to honor their memory and not allow what they saw to be forgotten, or what they fought for to be lost. But no matter what we do, once the last survivors are gone, we lose something irreplaceable.

I, for one, will mourn for Harry Patch.

Comments

[milbrcrsan.livejournal.com]

Holy cow, and to think with the medicines they had back then too! And speaking of WWI, I remember when we went to D.C. and the WWI monument was entirely overgrown and flithy. Not to mention there was no one in the area either. :( And of course in history they didn't last too long on dicussing WWI, now I'm pretty knowledgable (well, from the bits I can still recall from high school :p) on WWII, but I really don't know much about WWI. Sad.