Often times a writer finds he or she must go out of her way in order to create a work of fiction that comes across as believable, even when fact is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Take for example the case of Frank Buckles, born in a small town in northern Missouri in 1901. Turned down by both the Marine Corps and Navy, he enlisted in the Army in August 1917 at the age of 16.

In July 1918 he shipped out to France aboard the RMS Carpathia, the ship that had come to RMS Titanic’s rescue in April 1912. While aboard he met and talked to several crewmen who had been aboard the Carpathia on that night. On 17 July 1918 the Carpathia was torpedoed by the U-55 just off the east coast of Ireland. Buckles survived to serve as an ambulance driver in France.

After being discharged in November 1919, Buckles attended the dedication of the Liberty Memorial where he met General John J. Pershing, the American who had commanded US forces in France. In civilian life became a ship’s chief purser, becoming fluent in German, Spanish, and French. When he was awarded an $800.00 bonus by the government in the 1930s, (which today would equal over $12,000.00), Buckles gave the money to his father, a farmer in Oklahoma who was suffering due to the infamous ‘Dust Bowl.’

1942 found Buckles working in Manila in the Philippines. There he became a prisoner of the Japanese. He spent the next three and a half years in the Los Baños prison camp, suffering from malnourished due to a diet of a small mush-like meal served in a tin cup, a utensil he still had at the time of his death. With a weight below 100 pounds, Buckles developed beriberi, yet led his fellow prisoners in calisthenics. He was freed by 1st Battalion, 511 PIR, 11th Airborne Division during a raid on February 23, 1945. During his captivity, Buckles learned some Japanese.

In 1946 he married and moved to West Virginia where he bought a farm and raised cattle.

Butler died on 27 February 2011. He was the last American veteran of World War I. Only two other veterans of World War I are known to still be alive. One is an Australian by the name of Claude Stanley Choules who served aboard the HMS Revenge upon which he witnessed both the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet and its scuttling at Scapa Flow. The other is a female, Florence Beatrice Green who served in the RAF.

On 15 March Butler was buried in Arlington with full military honors near the grave of General Pershing, Federal and many state flags were flown at half-mast.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

Nancy Cole
www.nancycole.org