Frank Buckles told Maine Corps and Navy recruiters he was 18—he was really 16—when he tried to enlist to fight in World War I. Both turned him down. The Army took him, even though, like the others, the Army recruiter suspected the Missouri native was under age. Buckles died February 27, 2011, at age 110, the last of 4.7 million Americans who fought in World War I.
Sixteen million Americans served in the United States armed forces during World War II. An estimated 167,284 remain alive as of September 30, 2022, according to an annual count by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Twelve years from now, in 2034, fewer than one thousand soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who fought the imperial Japanese and German Nazis are likely to remain alive.
About a million of the 6.8 million members of the military who fought in the Korean war remained alive in 2020. That number is expected to drop to fewer than 200,000 by 2030, according to VA. Numbers for surviving Vietnam vets are harder to come by, but the 2.7 million service members who fought in that unpopular war are in their 70s or 80s.
I wish I had asked my father more questions about his time in the Army. It wasn’t long. He was discharged after he became too ill to be sent overseas. And I never got a chance to talk to Ty’s parents before they died, although their letters were clear about their love for their only child and how they longed for his return. His letters were full of dreams f0r a post-war life that never happened.
Which brings me to this advice: If there is a veteran in your family, now is the time to record the stories no one else can tell. Famously unwilling to talk about their time at war, World War II veterans are our last witnesses to a war—unlike any other—that was truly a world war.
It can be as simple as turning on your phone. Ask vets for letters, medals, uniforms, and diaries. Looking at objects can trigger memories.
Then figure out how to share the recording—and perhaps the objects. Look through those boxes in the attic. Your family may want to hold onto objects and papers. If so, invest in acid-free boxes or folders. State history societies or museums—local or national—may be interested.
When my aunt decided she no longer wanted to store Ty’s letters and diaries, we researched several options. She chose the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress. It tells the stories of individual veterans from 1912 to the present. https://www.loc.gov/vets/
Story Corps is collecting veterans’ stories in partnership with local public radio stations and the VHP. You can download the app on your phone. The directions are on its website: https://storycorps.org/participate/storycorps-app/
We are lucky to have Frank Buckles’ stories of World War I and World War II, where, like Ty, he was stationed in the Philippines and became a prisoner of war. Freed in 1945, he returned home and ran a cattle ranch.
(Defense Department photo of Frank Buckles, Now at the Veterans History Project)