[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 29 (Thursday, February 12, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H1276-H1277]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CREEKWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL, KINGWOOD, TEXAS, AND THE LOST DOUGHBOY, FRANK 
                                BUCKLES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, they say that World War I is the 
forgotten war, but it is not so in Kingwood, Texas at Creekwood Middle 
School.
  The school did what is called a ``service learning project'' that is 
a hands-on, in-depth study of the survivors of World War I. Thanks to 
the work of the teachers of the school, the history teachers--but 
especially teacher Jan York--the kids studied World War I and the 
survivors who still are alive today.
  World War I, 90 years ago last November, the war to end all wars, 
ended. It started in the early 20th century. The United States got 
involved in 1917, and the United States sent 4.7 million doughboys 
across the seas to fight in that great war.
  When American troops landed in Europe, our allies were stunned at the 
enthusiasm and at the aggressiveness of our troops, and our enemies 
were shocked by their determination and relentless spirit.
  After that war was over on the eleventh day of the eleventh month at 
the eleventh hour in 1918, when all hostilities ceased, 114,000 
doughboys, as they were called, did not come home. Many are still 
buried in Europe in graves only known to God.
  After those troops did get home, thousands of others died from the 
Spanish flu that they contracted in Europe during that war. There was 
just one doughboy left. His name is Frank Buckles. He is the lone 
survivor, the last doughboy.
  Madam Speaker, this is a photograph of Frank Buckles that was taken 
not long ago by photographer David DeJonge from Michigan. David has 
made it his ambition and life's work to take photographs of the 
survivors of World War I and of events that occurred in World War I.
  Frank Buckles, he was an interesting individual. When the war 
started, he was just 16, so he tried to join the United States Army, 
but he was too little. He didn't weigh enough and he was not 18. So he 
lied about his age. He finally got a recruiter to take him, and he went 
to Europe as a 16-year-old and fought in the great World War I. He 
drove an ambulance and rescued other doughboys who had been wounded in 
World War I.
  After the war was over with, he came back to the United States and 
started a farm in West Virginia, and when World War II started, he 
found himself in the Philippines. He was captured by the Japanese, and 
during World War II, he was held as a prisoner of war for 3 years until 
that war was over with. Frank Buckles in this photograph is now 108 
years old, the lone survivor.
  Last Friday, I had the honor to be present with those 1,000 school 
kids at Creekwood Middle School who are studying in-depth World War I 
and their survivors, like Frank Buckles, and what happened. Not only 
did they have an exhibit and photographs, but they got Frank Buckles on 
the telephone, and they sang to him ``happy birthday'' for his 108th 
birthday.
  But that's not all, Madam Speaker. The choir sang the song that the 
World War I doughboys went off to war with the song ``Over There, Over 
There.'' They will not be back until it's over over there. But it was 
more than just to honor Frank Buckles. It was to raise money for a 
memorial on the National Mall for the World War I veterans. Let me 
explain.
  We had four great wars in the last century, and we have built 
monuments for three of those--Vietnam, Korea and World War II--but if 
you look on the mall, there is no national monument for people like 
Frank Buckles. We just

[[Page H1277]]

didn't get around to it as a Nation. It is true, as in this photograph, 
that this is a memorial for the D.C. veterans of World War I. It is 
decrepit, cracking, and the sidewalk, itself, is broken where Frank 
Buckles is sitting in his wheelchair when rain was coming down when 
this photograph was taken. So the kids raised $13,000 to build a 
memorial to the World War I veterans.
  I have introduced legislation to expand this D.C. memorial for all 
veterans of World War I. You see, those veterans don't have high-dollar 
lobbyists in D.C. who are advocating for a memorial for them. They just 
have the kids of the Nation, kids like those at Creekwood Middle 
School, who are doing everything they can to honor another generation, 
that generation that was the fathers of the greatest generation.
  So I commend them for their relentless spirit and for studying 
American history and about American people like Frank Buckles. Their 
slogan was ``bucks for Buckles, dough for the doughboys'' to privately 
raise funds for this memorial. He is the lone survivor, but his voice 
will be heard throughout this country because David DeJonge is going to 
schools throughout the country on this national exhibit that started in 
a little place called Kingwood, Texas at Creekwood Middle School.
  So God bless those kids, and God bless those doughboys who served and 
who went over there for the rest of us. They went to a land they did 
not know. They fought for a people that they had never met all because 
they were asked to do their duty. The American spirit and the American 
youth of this country should be congratulated.
  And that's just the way it is.

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