Sunday, August 02, 2009

WW I Heroes are passing on.....Farewell, and R.I.P.....

Atlantic Lines had this post Harry Patch RIP

which led me to search to find out more about Harry Patch.

There is, of course a Wikipedia entry

and this article (which mentions the death of Henry Allingham prior to Harry Patch's death) from the Telegraph.co.uk I found quite interesting

The heirs of Harry Patch are fighting in the fields of Helmand by Bryony Gordon

and I found two books that I'll have to add to my Amazon wishlist

The Last Fighting Tommy: The Life of Harry Patch, the Only Surviving Veteran of the Trenches by Harry Patch and Richard van Emden

and

Kitchener's Last Volunteer: The Life of Henry Allingham, the Oldest Surviving Veteran of the Great War by Henry Allingham and Dennis Goodwin


One of the best books I've ever read about WW I I reviewed on the previous incarnation of this blog in 2007
Just Finished Reading "A World Undone: The Story of the Great War,1914 to 1918" by G.J. Meyer


Wikipedia also had a List of last surviving World War I veterans by country

one of whom lives only one state away from me Frank Buckles

I had never given a lot of thought to how we honored (or didn't ) our World War I heroes, until I visited the Mall in DC in February 2007 A Visit to the Wall and Other Memorials and came upon the DC WW I Memorial in a very dilapidated state.......on Frank Buckles Wikipedia page I saw that he had been designated the honorary chairman of the WW I National Memorial, and a link to here stated at the bottom of the page:

In September 2008, Rep. Ted Poe of Texas, with the support of Frank Buckles, the last living US veteran of World War I, proposed a bill in Congress stating the memorial should be expanded and designated the national memorial to World War I.

Considering that just a few months ago my daughter and I visited briefly at the Gettysburg memorial, and that is a massive memorial to those who fell on that field back in the Civil War? I do not see how we could do any less as a nation, to honor and remember those who fought in WW I ......so I'd like to add my small voice to those calling for the current WW I memorial to be expanded and nationalized.....and perhaps, maybe before the last few surviving veterans have all passed on.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Keep up the great work and please contact your congressmen to support HR 482 the bill to create a National WWI Memorial in DC.

Thanks,

David DeJonge
President, WWIMF

Unknown said...

Thank you, Mr. DeJonge.......and for those of you who wish to contact your Congressman? You can use this link

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt

and ask them to support HR 482

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-482