During World War I a total of 4,734,991 Americans served their country in the armed forces. By the early twenty-first century, they were a vanishing generation. Ironically, out of the millions who joined the colors in 1917 and 1918, two of the last veterans, Lloyd Brown and Frank Buckles were Missourians.
The last American naval veteran was Lloyd Brown who was born in Lutie, Missouri on October 7, 1901. His family later moved to Chadwick, where his father operated a store on the flourishing railroad line. When he was just sixteen years old, Brown lied about his age and joined the navy. After training, he was assigned to the U.S.S. New Hampshire where he served as a gunner for three months in 1918. Brown recalled his most memorable experience was when the New Hampshire captured a German submarine, one of the most feared weapons of the war.
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| U.S.S. New Hampshire |
Brown returned to the navy in the 1920s where he was trained as a musician and played the cello in an admiral’s orchestra on the U.S.S. Seattle.
After leaving the navy for good, Brown joined the District of Columbia fire department in 1925. He worked for the fire department until the 1950s when he and his second wife moved to Maryland. Brown remained in good health and was active until he his final days. He died on March 29, 2007, at 105 years old.
The final American veteran of World War I was Frank Buckles who was born in Bethany, Missouri in 1901. Buckles was 110 years old when he died on February 27, 2011. Both Brown and Buckles remained remarkably active and elegantly represented their generation and its sacrifice.
For more information about America’s last World War I veterans, see Last of the Doughboys: The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten World War by Richard Rubin.
Sources:
Waterhouse, Lin and Fred Pfister. "Lloyd Brown: Last WWI Naval Veteran Was An Ozarker." The Ozarks Mountaineer (July/August 2007): 6-8.
