I Guess It's Finally Over, Over There...

The Last Doughboy has rejoined the rest of his comrades. Frank Buckles was an ambulance driver in the Great War, and all of 16 years old in 1917. His fondest wish: to restore the DC War Memorial, get a monument for the AEF, and to be buried by General Pershing.

"It has long been my father's wish to be buried in Arlington, in the same cemetery that holds his beloved General Pershing," Flanagan wrote as she began to prepare for the inevitable in a letter she sent to home-state U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia.

Here's hoping the Defense Department can make that happen. He ended up involved the the second war as well.

Buckles, after World War I ended, took up a career as a ship's officer on merchant vessels. He was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines during World War II and held prisoner of war for more than three years before he was freed by U.S. troops.

That sounds like more than one's fair share of bloodshed and toil. RIP.

UPDATE: As of now, the only living veterans of WWI are subjects of Queen Elizabeth: a British Woman and an Australian Man.