[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 103 (Friday, June 20, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S5933]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO FRANK WOODRUFF BUCKLES

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, this week, I was pleased to participate in a 
celebration of a true American hero, a West Virginia legend, and a 
friend, Mr. Frank Woodruff Buckles, the last surviving American veteran 
of World War I.
  His has always been a life of excitement and adventure, an example of 
living life to the fullest. His career in the steamship business in the 
1920s and 1930s took him to Nazi Germany, where he saw the German 
dictator, Adolph Hitler, at the 1936 Olympics, and witnessed the great 
Jesse Owens win 4 Gold Medals. In the 1940s, his work took him to the 
Philippines, where he was captured and spent three and one-third years 
until the end of World II in a Japanese POW camp. Here he led his 
fellow prisoners in calisthenics, as well as a number of Japanese 
guards who put down their guns and joined in.
  That would have been more than a lifetime of experiences for most 
mortals, but not Mr. Buckles. His life had just begun because, after 
the war, he married and became a West Virginian and a farmer!
  For the next 50 years, Mr. Buckles has experienced and enjoyed life 
as a farmer in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. At 107 years of 
age, he still operates his 330-acre cattle farm. He remains an avid 
reader. For example, he recently read my book, ``Losing America.'' 
Every year, on his birthday, he takes my staffer, Ms. Martha Anne 
McIntosh, out to dinner at the Bavarian Inn in Shepherdstown.
  Now that is impressive! At the age of 107, he is still reading, 
working, and engaging in an active social life! Mr. Buckles is my role 
model.
  Maybe his long, productive, and happy life is a product of breathing 
the good, clean West Virginia mountain air! More likely, it is the 
result of his healthy attitude toward life itself because, as the Bible 
tells us, ``A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.'' (Proverbs, 
17:22).
  Mr. Buckles is eternally young, and for that, we appreciate him, as 
well as honor him for a life that exemplifies the American ideals of 
bravery, patriotism, and perseverance.




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