That`s amazing. I can`t believe there are still WW1 vets around. My Grandfather was Scottish and fought in it, but he died in 1983 at the age of 85. He lied about his age to get in the army. He was 16 and they found out, sent him back and he got in the next year. I can`t imagine anyone younger than 100 alive today who was in that war, unless they were 10 year old kids. He called it the great war, and never ever talked about his own personal experiences. I remember his friend who was in it as well had half a foot, and he use to show it to me when I was a kid. He would take off his shoes and socks and all he had was a heel and half a foot.
Note that Hileman didn't join the Army until 1919 and actually wasn't involved in what we understand as WW I at all.
Instead, he served in the expeditionary force that was sent to Siberia after Armistice Day -- in an attempt to stabilize Russia in the wake of defeat and post-war revolution.
I imagine that most of the other hundred-or-so survivors of WW I were comparative youths who also saw service in Russia, post-Armistice.
My grandfather was from Northern Ireland, and he lied about his age to get in the army, too. He was only 15, and the youngest of 13 kids. His mom showed up at the training camp after a week, with his birth certificate, and took him home.
According to my mother (Pops died when I was only 2), he used to say he was never happier to see anyone in his life, than he was to see his mother come to get him out of the army!
I don't know which one it was that he was gassed at, but from what I understand, it was Mustard Gas..
He was severely burned on the skin, neck, arms, face, back, etc.. they were unprepared for gas, and had no protective suits at all.
The worst was that he inhaled the gas..
He lost one lung completely.. for the rest of his life, his remaining lung was only about 60% effective..
The dry winter air would usually put him in the hospital with the first hard freeze, and he would usually remain there, on oxygen until the spring rains came..
He too, was only 17 or 18 on joining the army infantry..
I think he was barely 60 years old when he died in his sleep..
He was a very quiet man, who never talked about the war, at least to me..
But every 4th of July, he would wake me at the break of dawn, and we would slip out of the house, go into the pastures, and blow up stumps with dynamite..
He thought it was great fun..
I too, miss my grandfather...
My great-grandfather was drafted as a 28 year old, and saw action in Muesse-Argonne and the Somme. He was in a little cabin in France playing cards during a lull in the fighting when some young Kraut threw a mustard gas bomb through the window. As a result, he lived with severe emphyesema for 26 more years, dying in 1943.
W/in the next 36 months we will probably see the end of these great men. In 1959, when the last Civil War vet died (a 12 year old drummer boy who joined the Rebs in 1865), Life magazine ran his picture on the cover.Our generations equivalkent mag, People, will probably not even mention the last WWI guy who passes away. Sad.