I watched "Globetrekker" on Saturday night in which the hostess toured Belgium. One spot on her trek was Ypres, the location of Flanders Fields, and where she visited several of the 185 military graveyards located there. I had no idea; I knew WWI was a bloody mess and I was familiar with the above poem, but until that show I really didn't realize the extent of the bloodshed that occurred there.
Corporal Buckles served as a driver during that war. In his words: "I was just 16 and didn’t look a day older. I confess to you that I lied to more than one recruiter. I gave them my solemn word that I was 18, but I’d left my birth certificate back home in the family Bible. They’d take one look at me and laugh and tell me to go home before my mother noticed I was gone. Somehow I got the idea that telling an even bigger whopper was the way to go. So I told the next recruiter that I was 21 and darned if he didn’t sign me up on the spot! I enlisted in the Army on 14 August 1917."Read more: ... )
I had been thinking about him of recent. It seems kind of fitting that the day he passed, we were at trenchline site (i.e. my most recent update). An amazing life, that is for sure.
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Corporal Buckles served as a driver during that war.
In his words:
"I was just 16 and didn’t look a day older. I confess to you that I lied to more than one recruiter. I gave them my solemn word that I was 18, but I’d left my birth certificate back home in the family Bible. They’d take one look at me and laugh and tell me to go home before my mother noticed I was gone. Somehow I got the idea that telling an even bigger whopper was the way to go. So I told the next recruiter that I was 21 and darned if he didn’t sign me up on the spot! I enlisted in the Army on 14 August 1917."Read more: ... )
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