As Heroes of the Great War Fall Silent
A Public Service Annoucement
By Erick Posted in War — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
This is worth putting on the front page:
The Office of Public Affairs wants VA employees to join the final search for America's living World War I veterans. A year ago, there were 20, now there are four - four names on VA's list of living Americans who entered military service prior to November 11, 1918; four World War I veterans left of the 4.8 million men and women who served in U.S. armed forces between America's entry into the war April 16, 1917 and the Armistice with other federal and state agencies and veterans groups to identify World War I veterans and develop a list to help the Department and the nation track these final veterans of The Great War. Records searches alone can not reveal the identities of all veterans with World War I service who might be alive. The U.S. Army demobilized rapidly after the war ended and veterans benefits and services were handled by a number of separate federal agencies. Many veterans did not apply for benefits at all so no records were produced; and a 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis destroyed many military service records from that era. So the VA Office of Public Affairs is asking VA employees who may know of living World War I veterans to contact VA Central Office with their information. Information about survivors can be e-mailed to ww1@va.gov; faxed to 202-273-6702, or mailed to the Office of Public Affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs (80), 810 Vermont Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20420.
« We need more COIN in the Afghan realm — Comments (0) | Fewer Troops In Iraq By Winter? — Comments (31) »
As Heroes of the Great War Fall Silent 4 Comments (0 topical, 4 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Often overlooked because of "The Greatest Generation", these men and women did their part to defend our freedom and spent time living in a hell that was the Western Front.
May God Bless those that are still alive and may we that are left stay true to the ideals that they fought for.
I am from the Kansas City area and for years I was told that the Liberty Memorial was the only Memorial to memorize WWI. WWII was such a big event in world history it kind of over shadowed memories of WWI. This museum has been here for many, many years and I remember as a child riding the elevator to the top of the memorial. It fell into disrepair and was closed down until it was designated by Congress as the nation’s official WWI Museum and that allowed the museum to raise the money to reopen.
They have a new state of the art complex using highly-interactive technology to bring history to life, and to foster timely discussions of ethics, values, decision making and conflict resolution.
The Museum supports the Department of Veterans Affairs efforts to locate living veterans of World War I. On there website they say they Museum is actively collects objects and documents from all the belligerent countries in World War I.
I am really glad that we are able to pay tribute to someone who has served in World War I. There was over 50,000 American soldiers die in that war.
Here is there website: http://www.libertymemorialmuseum.org/
My grandfather was born in 1896, and went to war in 1917 as a 19 year old.
He came back to his New Mexico farm in 1919. He never spoke about it at all.
I don't know what he saw or experienced. But this is a good thing..even though he's gone.
They would have to be at least 106, wouldn't they? I didn't think there would be any WWI vets left anymore. They would be among the oldest living men on the planet.
Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. - Douglas Adams