Reporters Notebook: Memories of Frank Buckles

Feb. 28, 2011 -- He had us eating out of the palm of his hand and we were enjoying every minute of it. Sitting in a wheelchair before the Pentagon press corps was the then 107-year-old Frank Buckles, America's last living veteran of World War I.

We strained to hear every sound of his faint voice as he regaled us with his stories; meanwhile, being hard of hearing, he strained to hear the questions we were yelling at him from just a few feet away.

The exchange is one of my favorite Pentagon moments which is why it was sad to hear the news today that the 110-year-old Buckles had passed away this Sunday at his West Virginia farm. It was a farm where he had lived out the last half century of his life in relative obscurity until a Pentagon ceremony in March, 2008 honored him as the last living veteran to have served in the US military during World War I.

Buckles had come to the Pentagon to participate in a ceremony dedicating a new photographic exhibit honoring America's oldest-surviving WWI vets.

The display was a series of portraits taken of the last-known living survivors of what was known as the Great War. A photographer had tracked down America's oldest living WW I vets and taken their portraits before time took its toll. By the time the Pentagon ceremony was held, only Buckles remained as America's last "doughboy."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other top Pentagon brass spoke at the ceremony, but when it came time for Buckles to speak you could hear a pin drop in the vast Pentagon Auditorium. "I feel honored to be your humble representative of World War I," he said. "As the years went along and the decreasing numbers of veterans I have found that I was among those who had served, the last ones who had served. And it is an honor to be here to represent the veterans of World War I. I thank you."

After the ceremony was over we gathered around Buckles for an informal news conference.

He told us how as a 16-year-old Missouri farm boy he had wanted to volunteer for the fight in Europe, but had been turned down by both the Marines and the Navy because he was too young. But he hoodwinked an Army recruiter into believing he was older than he was and he was sent to Europe.