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.