[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2797]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 THE BOOK CLOSES FOR THE LAST DOUGHBOY

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, we have come to the end of a long 
chapter in American history. The lone U.S. survivor of World War I, 
Frank Buckles, has died at the incredible age of 110.
  At 16, Frank Buckles lied about his age so he could join the Army in 
1917 and go ``over there'' to fight for the cause of America. He drove 
an ambulance in World War I in Europe. During World War II, Buckles was 
captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and held as a prisoner of 
war for 3 years. Until recently, Buckles continued to drive his tractor 
on his farm in West Virginia.
  It was Buckles' passion to have a memorial built on the Capital Mall 
to honor all those doughboys that served in the great World War I. We 
have memorials for the other three major wars of the last century, but 
not one for World War I.
  I met Corporal Buckles when we introduced this legislation that is 
named in his honor. It is time we build such a memorial, and it is time 
we also allow Frank Buckles to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. 
History must remember this last patriot of World War I and the 4 
million other Americans that served.
  And that's just the way it is.

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