World War One – The War to End All Wars, The Great War. It is now more than 90 years since the start of this horrendous conflict in which more than 8 million soldiers perished. Remaining veterans of this war are more than 100 years in age, and the number living is rapidly dwindling. One small Pennsylvania town still maintains a monument to the heroes from this town who fought in the “War To End All Wars,” and that monument is the subject of this virtual cache.
On February 22, 2007, retired Army Cpl. Howard V. Ramsey, Oregon's last living World War I veteran and the last known U.S. combat veteran of WWI, died in his sleep at an assisted living center in southeast Portland.
J. Russell Coffey, the oldest known surviving U.S. veteran of World War I, has died, December 20, 2007. The retired teacher, one of only three U.S. veterans from the "war to end all wars," was 109.
As of December, 2007, two US WWI veterans remain alive although neither saw combat in the "Great War" The remaining U.S. veterans are Frank Buckles, 106, of Charles Town, West Virginia; and Harry Richard Landis, 108, of Sun City Center, Florida.
Memorial Day, 2010, Frank Buckles, now age 109, is the sole living US veteran of WW I.
February 27, 2011 - America's last WWI veteran, Frank Buckles (pictured below), has passed away at age 110 of natural causes. Only a 109-year-old Australian man and a 110-year-old British woman, Florence Green, remain as survivors from the estimated 65 million people who served in the 1914-1918 war.
May 5, 2011 - And now there is only one: Claude Stanley Choules, the last known combat veteran of World War I, died Thursday at a nursing home in the Western Australia city of Perth, his family said. He was 110.
February 4, 2012 - An era has come to an end. Florence Green, the world's last known veteran of World War I, has died at the age of 110, at the care home where she lived said Tuesday. Briar House Care Home in King's Lynn, England, said Green died Saturday, two weeks before her 111th birthday. Born Florence Beatrice Patterson in London on Feb. 19, 1901, she joined the Women's Royal Air Force in September 1918 at the age of 17.
To verify that you have found this cache, either post a picture of you and your GPS at the cache (please use care not to reveal the non-picture verification items, and treat the monument with proper respect.) If you are unable to provide a picture, e-mail us with the following information:
- What did you find in the water trough
and
- What hours should be counted?
Please do not log your find until e-mail with the requested proof of visit has been sent or photo posted. Logs without corresponding e-mail or photograph will be deleted without further warning. Please do not post the requested information in your log, encrypted or otherwise.