When I was a kid in the '60s, the World War I veterans headed up almost every parade in my hometown. It awed me that they were honoring their service from as many as 50 years before! Of course, today even World War II veterans (which includes my late father) are even farther removed from their service.
It is almost incomprehensible, then, that a handful of WWI veterans remain alive -- though one less, with the passing of the world's oldest resident last week, Henry Allingham, in England:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090718/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_obit_oldest_man
There remains just a single American WWI veteran, Frank Buckles, who lied about his age to enlist in 1917. At 108, he lives today in Charlestown, W. Va.
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