MISSOURI -- Flags in all 114 Missouri counties and the City of St. Louis have been ordered to fly at half-staff on Tuesday in honor of the last American veteran of World War I.
Missouri native Frank W. Buckles will be buried on Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Buckles passed away on February 27 at the age of 110. He was born in Bethany, Missouri in Harrison County and also lived as a child in Vernon County.
On March 1st, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon ordered that flags statewide be lowered on the date of Mr. Buckles’ interment to honor his military service. Nixon’s order also decreed that the flags at state buildings in Harrison and Vernon counties, and at the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, be flown at half-staff from March 2 to March 8.
“The generation that served the United States during The Great War – 4.7 million strong – has now passed, and with its passing, an important chapter in American history comes to a close,” Gov. Nixon said. “We honor the military service of Frank Buckles and his fellow ‘doughboys’ on behalf of our country. Like all veterans of our military, they put service before self.”
Information provided by Office of Missouri Governor Jay Nixon
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McCaskill Statement on the Final Ceremony to Honor Frank Buckles
Last veteran of the Great War will lie in honor at Arlington National Cemetery
WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill Tuesday issued a statement on the final ceremony to honor the last-surviving American World War I veteran Frank Buckles, who passed away February 27th at the age of 110. Buckles, a Bethany, Missouri native will lie in honor at Arlington National Cemetery, followed by a private burial service with full military honors. Born in 1901, he enlisted in the United States Army in 1917, telling officials he was older in order to be eligible to serve. McCaskill said that today’s ceremony reaffirms the need to honor the veterans of World War I by giving both Kansas City’s Liberty Memorial and Washington, D.C.’s World War I memorial national memorial status.
“As we pay our final respects to Mr. Buckles at our country’s most sacred ground, we not only honor his legacy of courage and determination, but an entire generation of men and women who proudly fought for the freedoms we cherish today,” McCaskill said. “Mr. Buckles was able to keep the memory of the Great War living for so long, but now that he’s gone we need to make sure that the sacrifices of this extraordinary generation will be memorialized for all generations to come.”
McCaskill has been working to dedicate the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City as a national place of honor for World War I veterans. Earlier this year, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill to dedicate the Liberty Memorial of Kansas City as the “National World War I Museum and Memorial”. It would also designate the District of Columbia War Memorial as the “District of Columbia and National World War I Memorial.” The legislation, Senate Bill 523, is pending in the Senate.
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