Veteran Revisits World War I
Dec. 1, 2006 — -- It was almost 90 years ago, but Frank Buckles remembers 1917 like it was yesterday. He was just a kid back then, bound for France -- and the first World War.
He was 16-years-old when he enlisted, having convinced a gullible Army recruiter that he was actually 21. The Navy and Marines were more observant and turned him down when he tried them. But Buckles was nothing if not determined.
"I was all gung-ho to get where the action was," he recalled during an interview on his 300-acre farm in Charlestown, W.Va. "I think I was going for the experience."
Frank Buckles is one of about a dozen surviving American veterans from what was later called The War to End All Wars. He spent his war time driving transports -- trucks or motorcycles -- mercifully far from the front lines. The war claimed the lives of 53,402 American soldiers in just about a year of fighting.
But the scale of the carnage was nothing compared to what followed. World War II eclipsed the first global conflict and relegated it to, if not a footnote, then a position far removed from history's center stage.
But this week in Kansas City, Mo., officials at the National World War I Museum plan to change that. The $27 million museum opens to the public Saturday, and visitors will get a much better look at the war many know next to nothing about.
"That war ended 90 years ago," said executive director Steve Berkheiser, "but we're still living with the consequences of it today."
Modern War Defined
Think about it: what was called The Great War was the first to introduce tanks to the battlefield, the first to involve air power, the first to have extensive use of submarines, and the first to have and actually use weapons of mass destruction such as gas.
It also vaulted the United States toward its preeminent position as a super power. Life for Americans was never the same after that conflict.
"We went from being an isolationist country to all of a sudden adopting this passion to go over there and protect democracy," said Ralph Appelbaum, the museum's designer.
Museum visitors will be able to step into a life-size bomb crater; they'll be introduced to trench warfare by entering a replica of the trenches that ran across Europe from the North Sea to the Alps. The horror of No Man's Land that covered the ground between the trenches is replicated here as well.
There are thousands upon thousands of artifacts, from pith helmets and uniforms, to surgical tools -- the saws prominently displayed in the cases. Also included are letters from the front, newspaper headlines, and an interactive room where you can re-fight the battles and possibly change the outcomes.
The war's reverberations in this country were small compared to what happened abroad. This was a war between the great empires: Britain and France, Germany, Russia, the Austro-Hungarians and the Ottoman Turks. The victors basically redrew the map of the world, creating 20,000 miles of new borders and many new independent states.
Other results of the war include the creation of Yugoslavia, which broke apart within the last ten years, and the foundation for Israel, though its history is replete with unending warfare. And Iraq was established on the ruins of Mesopotamia, imposed on warring groups of, yes, Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
"I think the impact of those decisions are still with us today," said Berkheiser.
Frank Buckles is glad he enlisted; though, in retrospect, he wonders what he must have been thinking way back when.
"Why would you want to get close to that kind of action?" I asked him.
"Well, I wonder about that now," he said with a smile.