Last WWI Combat Veteran Laid to Rest

[MP Sarge]

Last WWI Combat Veteran Laid to Rest

 
Army News Service | Spc. April L. Dustin | March 09, 2007
PORTLAND, Ore. - The echo of a 21-gun salute and bugler playing Taps seemingly marked the end of an era as a state and national treasure was laid to rest in Portland, Ore., March 2.

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 Feb. 22 at an assisted living center in southeast Portland. He was honored in a memorial service attended by nearly 200 people at Lincoln Memorial Park exactly one month before reaching his 109th birthday.

"This is a very historic occasion; we lay to rest today our nation's oldest combat veteran," said Pastor Stu Weber, who officiated over Ramsey's memorial service.

In an Associated Press report, Jim Benson of the Veterans Administration said there are now only seven WWI veterans on record with the VA, although it is possible there are unknown veterans who may still exist.

Of the seven known WWI veterans still living, none were shipped overseas, making Ramsey the last known combat veteran of "The Great War." Ramsey inherited the title two weeks before his passing, when Massachusetts veteran Antonio Pierro passed away on Feb. 8.

Ramsey's lifetime spanned three centuries and 19 presidents. He was born in Rico, Colo., on April 2, 1898, when the U.S. flag had just 45 stars and President McKinley was preparing to declare war with Spain.

Too young to be drafted, Ramsey tried to voluntarily enlist but was told he was too skinny by Army standards. After gorging on bananas and water to successfully meet weight standards, he was placed in the Army's transportation corps.

Ramsey sailed to France in September 1918 to join General John "BlackJack" Pershing's American Expeditionary Force. Ramsey drove cars, trucks and motorcycles for the Army and trained other Soldiers how to drive. He was often selected to drive officers to special engagements, one officer "gigging" him for having a dirty truck despite the constant rain and mud in France. He also drove ambulances, transported troops to the frontlines and delivered water to troops on the battlefields.

Ramsey once recalled his service in WWI saying, "We were under fire a lot at the front, and we really caught hell one time. I lost friends over there."

After the armistice, Ramsey spent several months recovering the remains of American Soldiers who had been hastily buried in the trenches and transported them to the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, the largest American cemetery in Europe.

"You'd better believe it was pretty awful work," Ramsey told Oregonian reporter Rick Bella in 2005. "It was tough, but you became hardened to it."

Nearly 90 years later, Ramsey was still haunted by regret for not breaking the rules and keeping a diary that fell from the pocket of one deceased American Soldier. Ramsey told family and friends, "I wanted to keep that diary so badly to send it to his mother, but it was against the rules to keep anything from off the bodies."

Veterans of many generations and wars, and military representatives attended Ramsey's memorial service to pay their respects, including Brig. Gen. Raymond C. Byrne Jr., commander of the Oregon Army National Guard's 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, and Jim Willis, state director of Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs.

"If we are going to end an era, I can think of no better way than to do it with a person who is a model representation of the kinds of Soldiers who served this country in WWI, and someone who would be an example to any combat Soldier serving up to, and including those who serve in Afghanistan and Iraq today. All (veterans) would be justifiably proud to have known Corporal Howard Ramsey," said Willis.

Retired Army Col. Don Holden, whose father was Ramsey's classmate at Washington High School, shared fond memories of Ramsey's sense of humor. He said farewell to his old friend by reading the epic WWI poem "Flander's Field," which Ramsey could recite from memory well into his late 90s.

[Optiker]

<<S>> Cpl. Howard V. Ramsey

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[daddog]

Thanks for posting this Sarge.

Very sad in a way.

[MP Sarge]

found one for our 51st state the cold storage state  (Canada),

too thier Few left from WW I

 

One of Canada's last three surviving veterans from the First World War, Victor (Lloyd) Clemett, has died. He was 107.

Lloyd Clemett enlisted about a month after turning 16.
(CBC)
Born on Dec. 10, 1899, in Toronto, Clemett died late Wednesday night at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

During an interview with CBC News late last year, Clemett was asked about the secret to his longevity, and responded, "Just taking it easy, not running too wild and having a good time."

Clemett enlisted in the army in 1916, a month after turning 16, following in the footsteps of his three older brothers who had already left for the battlefields.

Remarkably, all four would later return home — though one suffered shrapnel injuries to the head. He would survive to the ripe old age of 96.

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Clemett was sent to England, where a concerned colonel transferred him to the forestry brigade upon learning the teen's young age.

When the brigade was deployed to France a year later, Clemett repeatedly volunteered to go to the front lines and was headed there when armistice was declared on Nov. 11, 1918.

"It was all over a month or so before I reached the front line. I was within the sounds of the heavy guns and that was it," he said.

'No hurrahs' at war's end
There was no disappointment, but no excitement either when his battalion heard news that the war was over.

"No hurrahs," he said of the reaction. "The war was over. That was all there was to it."

He said he never regretted joining the army and realized how lucky he was to return home, but lamented that the war was in vain.

"The war accomplished nothing. Eventually things settled down and we get into the old style of life again," said Clemett.

Clemett would later choose not to sign up for the Second World War, with his wife and two boys to think about.

Orphaned at young age
Clemett, his three brothers and two sisters were orphaned at a young age, forcing them to move in with relatives in the small Ontario community of Omemee, about 120 kilometres northeast of Toronto.

Lloyd Clemett, shown above in a 2005 interview, was one of the last three surviving First World War veterans, but insisted he didn’t want a state funeral.
(CBC)
At age eight, he began working, first at a creamery wrapping butter and later at a leather tannery.

When he returned from the war, he ended up back in the Toronto area for most of the rest of his life.

Though he dreamed of becoming a civil engineer when he returned from the war, he ended up working at Canadian Pacific.

In the late 1920s, he started a lawn mower sales and service business in Toronto that survived the Great Depression, and through the decades he worked in a variety of service and repair jobs.

His wife, Catherine, passed away in 1993, but Clemett continued to live at their family home in North Toronto until just over two years ago when he moved into a veterans' residence at Sunnybrook.

Two surviving WWI veterans
Clemett's death leaves two WWI veterans, Percy Wilson and John Babcock.

The federal government has agreed to hold a state funeral for the last veteran. A state funeral is one of the highest honours Canada can bestow, and are normally reserved for prime ministers and governors general.

But families must agree to it and both surviving veterans have indicated disinterest.

Clemett's family had also said he would rather have a simple memorial service because he doesn't think national attention should be directed at a single person.

He's getting his wish — a private funeral service will be held for family and close friends.