Last WW1 combat veteran passes away

Claude Choules passed away today at his home in Australia. He was 110. He served in both World Wars.

Discuss.

Lest we forget.

May He Rest In Peace, and lets hope he's now happy in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Both wars? Good job, sir, you've done your service quite well.

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

BBC article

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.

But as year follows year
More old men disappear...
Someday no one will march there at all.

i. hear. a. sound.

RIP...

You can not go to Utah again after you have eaten Utah and have not eaten.

I thought the last surviving one was a Turk... I'm sure I read it somewhere.

You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.

Yakup Satar was the last surviving Turkish veteran according to Wikipedia.

Here you go.

Kill all math nerds

Damn.

It always bugged me that WWI tends to get skipped over in history class in favor of it's bigger, sexier older younger brother WWII.

Maybe it was just my school district, but we got to that time period multiple times in History and only gave WWI a cursory glance each time. Which is funny, considering how it pretty much directly caused WWII.

edited 5th May '11 3:19:54 PM by deathjavu

Look, you can't make me speak in a logical, coherent, intelligent bananna.

^ That bugs me too.

R.I.P.

#IceBearForPresident

That's largely because the most reported front of WW 1, the Western Front was absolutely boring and drab. Just a grinding slaughter with no real change from late 1914 until pretty much when the Americans arrived and Red October was underway.

Here's hoping that the veterans of WWI used the opportunity that they had when they were alive to tell their story to as many people as possible so that we'd have more wisdom to discourage us from ever going to World War III.

Same goes for veterans of all wars, obviously.

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.

Shouldn't that be "younger"? Seeing as it happened later and all.

I always thought the two most publicized things in WWI was The Battle of the Somme and the Spring Offensive.

edited 5th May '11 3:50:11 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

The Christmas Truce.

My other signature is a Gundam.

The Battle of Verdun as classical example of a meatgrinder material battle. And the damnable "Miracle at the Marne". Those are relatively well-known, too. Oh, and the submarine warfare, of course (strange how nobody talks about the equivalent British surface blockade...)

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic

And here we have a host of other events that are often covered due to their own unique fame.

Sounds like the last of a very old breed is finally gone though.

Have to admit they were tough bastards. Living on so long. One of them surviving two world wars. He must have been quite a soldier in his day or really lucky.

edited 5th May '11 4:01:29 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

Actually, Frank Buckles was also a WW 2 veteran in a way. He was a POW. I'd give him full credit for that anytime.

Hope he has a good time in Valhalla with his buddies.

UN JOUR JE SERAI DE RETOUR PRÈS DE TOI

The world will never see tough motherfuckers of the same caliber again, the same can be said when all the WW 2 veterans are gone, something that will most likely happen in my lifetime.

It somehow feels like we're getting softer and softer as the years roll by..

Barkey: God I hope that is only our cynical view of the world. It could be because we have the net we just see more of humanities squishy people.

I remember meeting some guys who helped take Suribachi. Good lord they were made of leather for skin, fire and coal for eyes, and brimstone for hair.

edited 5th May '11 4:47:25 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

RIP warrior.

I think people become that when the times call for them.

It's easy to say, now, that we would have gone, that we would have equalled it.

Nonetheless, I would have gone. I cannot say whether I could have equalled them, but we should remember that we are thinking about the survivors. They were forged by that experience; if they had not been called upon to do it, would they have become tough enough to do so?

A brighter future for a darker age.