tugmoose Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 A salute to the last know survivor in the U.S. Hope I look this good at 107. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Analogman Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 He lives in WV. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Edie Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 When my father in law (who was a WWII vet) passed away in late December, it brought the idea of veterans dying to my son. He wanted to know how many vets were around from WWII and I told him that while there were still pretty many around, they are leaving us pretty fast. He then asked about WWI, and I did the math and said that I doubted that there were any. Then this post comes along, and I called him over and we looked at the man's picture together and we thanked him for his service. It was a really nice moment. Thanks for posting. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Reni Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 and that you for sharing that Edie...... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mountain bed Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 A salute to the last know survivor in the U.S. Hope I look this good at 107.I saw this on the tube tonight. That guy looked to be mid-eighties to me. Pretty impressive all the way 'round. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Katie3 Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 Wow. It's pretty amazing, looks like he took good care of himself. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tugmoose Posted March 7, 2008 Author Share Posted March 7, 2008 Thanks for posting.You're welcome, from the son of a WWII vet, still very much with us. In fact he just sang at the Philadelphia Academy of Music at an MS benefit concert a couple weeks ago. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
LouieB Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 For a musical perspective on the Great Warcheck out this album from Archeophone.... LouieB Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Whitty Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 He lives just about a 20 minute drive from me. And he still ties a fresh onion to his belt every day. Sorry about that. Couldn't resist. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Edie Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 Sometimes we are prescient around here. Last French WWI vet diesBy LAURENT PIROT, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 24 minutes ago France's last remaining veteran of World War I died Wednesday at age 110 after outliving 8.4 million Frenchmen who fought in what they called "la Grande Guerre." Lazare Ponticelli, who was born in Italy but chose to fight for France and was a French citizen for most of the past century, died at his home in the Paris suburb of Kremlin-Bicetre, the national veterans' office said. "It is to him and his generation that we owe in large part the peaceful and pacified Europe of today. It is up to us to be worthy of that," President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement. France planned a national funeral ceremony Monday honoring Ponticelli and all the "poilus," an affectionate term meaning hairy or tough that the French use for their soldiers who fought in World War I. The 1914-1918 conflict, known at the time as the Great War or the "war to end all wars," tore Europe apart and killed millions. Only a handful of World War I veterans are still living, scattered from Australia to the United States and Europe. Germany's last WWI veteran died on New Year's Day. Monuments to battles and war dead cover swathes of France where trenches once divided the landscape during the war, which left 1.4 million French fighters dead of the 8.4 million who served. The last survivor was an unlikely one. Ponticelli was born Dec. 7, 1897, in Bettola, a town in northern Italy. To escape a tough childhood, Ponticelli trooped off alone at age 9 to the nearest railway station, 21 miles away in Piacenza, where he took a train to join his brothers in France, eventually becoming a French citizen, according to the veterans' office in Versailles. In the French capital, he worked as a chimney sweep and then as a newspaper boy. When the war broke out, he was just 16, so he lied about his age to enlist, the president's statement said. Ponticelli decided to fight for France, because it had taken him in. "It was my way of saying 'Thank you," he said in a 2005 interview with the newspaper Le Monde. Ponticelli joined the Foreign Legion during the war and served in the Argonne region of forest, rivers and lakes in northeast France, digging burial pits and trenches. "At the beginning, we barely knew how to fight and had hardly any ammunition. Every time that one of us died, we fell silent and waited for our turn," he said in the 2005 interview. He also recalled running into no man's land to save a wounded comrade stuck in barbed wire. "He was shouting, 'Come and get me, I've severed a leg.' The stretcher-bearers didn't dare go out. I couldn't bear it any longer," he said. When Italy entered the war in 1915, Ponticelli was called up to fight with an Italian Alpine regiment. He tried to hide, but was found and sent to fight the Austrian army. He described moments of fraternity with enemy Austrian soldiers. "They gave us tobacco, and we gave them loaves of bread. No one was shooting any more. The headquarters found out, and moved us to a tougher zone," he told Le Monde. He described the joy in receiving letters from a milkmaid who "adopted" him when he was serving in Italy. He couldn't read at the time, so comrades read them to him, according to a biography by the Versailles veterans' office. The Italian President Giorgio Napolitano expressed condolences "in the name of all Italians" to the veteran's daughter, Jeannine Desbaucheron. By fighting first for France and then for Italy, Ponticelli "offered an admirable example of an elevated sense of duty and dedication to both his adoptive country and his country of birth," Napolitano wrote in a message to her. Ponticelli returned to France in 1921, and he and his brothers started a company that made factory smokestacks. The company, Ponticelli Freres, grew into a manufacturer of specialized industrial equipment and is still in business. Ponticelli became a French citizen in 1939, his nephew said. His family was uncomfortable with the elaborate national funeral ceremony planned. Ponticelli agreed to one before his death, as long as it honored all the poilus and not just himself. "We are trying to keep this a bit personal. We didn't want all this ceremony," said his grandnephew, Daniel Ponticelli. He will be interred in a family burial plot in Paris. ___ Associated Press writers John Leicester and Pauline Freour contributed to this report. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
So Long Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 107?! That's insane, here's to 108. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jmacomber68w Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 here's to 109! haha thats badass, gotta respect every veteran especially ones who served in the WWs Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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