Last Man standing

Last WW1 vet lives in WV

W.V. WWI Veteran Last in U.S. Save Email Print

TAMPA, Fla. (AP)
Posted: 4:30 AM Feb 7, 2008
Last Updated: 6:36 PM Feb 6, 2008


One of only two known U.S. veterans of World War I has died in Florida.

The Florida Department of Veterans Affairs says 108-year-old Harry Richard Landis died Monday. He had lived at a nursing home in Tampa.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 107-year-old Frank Buckles of Charles Town, West Virginia is the remaining U.S. veteran.

Landis trained as a U.S. Army recruit for 60 days at the end of the war and never went overseas. But the Department of Veterans Affairs counts him among the 4.7 million men and woman who served during the Great War.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

This is strange for me, my own father Melvin Lathrop Bailey SR served in the Army from 1914-1916 as well as my Uncle Gideon, they both served in D Troop 7th Calvary based at Douglas Arizona, they rode with General Pershing on the famous Pancho Villa chase into Mexico. They were both discharged from the Army before WW1 even started. Back then birth certificates weren't checked like they are now, both of his parents had passed his father Joshua Eaton Bailey Nov 1833- April 1900 and his mother Ida Garber Bailey passed in 1912, their older step sister from Ida's frist marriage put them both in the Army my Dad was 14 and Uncle Gid was older, he had been born in 1896. I am proud of my fathers service in the 7th Calvary (thank god he wasn't old enough to be with Custer)

Sphere: Related Content