World's oldest man, WWI veteran dies

[babylonsister]

http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/world/2009/07/18/D99GOJBO0_eu_britain_obit_oldest_man/index.html

World's oldest man, WWI veteran dies
By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press Writer


Jul 18th, 2009 | LONDON -- The world's oldest man, 113-year-old World War I veteran Henry Allingham, died Saturday after spending his final years reminding Britain about the 9 million soldiers killed during the conflict.

Allingham was the last surviving original member of the Royal Air Force, which was formed in 1918. He made it a personal crusade to talk about a conflict that wiped out much of a generation. Though nearly blind, he would take the outstretched hands of visitors in both of his, gaze into the eyes of children, veterans and journalists and deliver a message he wanted them all to remember.

"I want everyone to know," he told The Associated Press during an interview in November. "They died for us."

Only a handful of World War I veterans remain of the estimated 68 million mobilized. There are no French veterans left alive; the last living American-born veteran is Frank Woodruff Buckles of Charles Town, West Virginia.

"It's the end of a era -- a very special and unique generation," said Allingham's longtime friend, Dennis Goodwin, who confirmed Allingham's death. "The British people owe them a great deal of gratitude."

[KharmaTrain]

1. A Quiet Milestone For A Truly Forgotten War...

There was never a war as brutal as World War I and those who served did so under the worst of circumstances. Trench warefare was described as hours of boredom surrounded by seconds of mayhem. Thousands were led "over the top" in human waves against machine guns...all to capture a few yards of "no man's land".

This man had a fascinating life in interesting times. Think of it this way...when he was born, the Wright Brothers still hadn't figured out how to keep their gliders airborne...and saw great progress...or at least I like to think so.

[Deja Q]

3. "The war to end all wars", it was once called...

Oops.

When there is discivility (oh, okay, people engaged in grossly uncivilized behavior) afoot, a violent intercession is sometimes inevitable... atl east from a historical standpoint...

[Orsino]

2. The failures of political leaders *forced* them to die. n/t

[Berry Cool]

4. Two of the best novels about WWI that I ever read:

The Passing Bells by Phillip Rock - about how British society was turned upside down and inside out by the war, how it destroyed the plush lifestyles of so many wealthy aristocrats, how it sometimes reversed the roles of master and servant as everyone pitched in to do what they could, and how agonizing the war was for the soldiers. Published in the 1970s, after it was more than OK to acknowledge that "war is hell" and that some WWI soldiers deliberately shot themselves just to get away from the horror.

Losing Julia by Jonathan Hull - This one is about an American solider who survived the war, and lived long enough to find himself in another miserable place: a nursing home in the 1980s. While living there, surrounded by people in various stages of decline and death, he's haunted by memories of the horrors he saw during the war, the love letters his trenchmate shared with him to help them both cope with the ugliness and brutality all around them, and the woman who wrote the letters, whom he finally had the opportunity to meet years later.

Read either one, and see if you can do it without being in tears at the end.

[babylonsister]

5. Thanks for those reviews, Berry. They both look good. nt

[abumbyanyothername]

7. All Quiet on the Western Front

One of the most compelling (anti)war films ever made.

[cwydro]

8. And a good book. eom

[Vidar]

6. RIP Mr. Allingham. You certainly fought the good fight.

[timeforpeace]

9. Notice how all the World's Oldest Person(s) keep dropping like flies? A bad luck title indeed.