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It's a humbling thought, but there are few people who served in WW1 still alive, and living memory of the war will end.  The greatest calamity of my grandfather's age has left but 3 survivors.

Claude Choules was born in Worcestershire, England in 1901 and joined the Royal Navy in 1916, when he was only 16.  In 1917 he joined the crew of the battleship HMS Circe,  He witnessed the surrender of the German Fleet at the end of the war and the scuttling of that same fleet at Scapa Flow.

He transferred to the Royal Australian Navy between the wars after being sent there as an instructor and lives there still.  In WW2, he was stationed in Fremantle on the western coast of Austrailia and was responsible for sabotaging the oil depots and harbor in the event of a Japanese invasion.

Florence Green was born in London in 1901, and joined the Women's Royal Air Force in 1918 when she was only 17 years old.  She served as a waitress at the RAF mess in Marham airbase in Norfolk and also Narborough airfield.  She currently lives in King's Lynn in Norfolk, England.

Frank Buckles was born in 1901 also and is from Missouri.  He lied about his age in 1917 to get into the US Army, after the Marines told him he didn't weigh enough.  He sailed to Europe on the RMS Carpathia, and he talked with crew who had been at the Titanic rescue in 1912.  He drove ambulances and motorcycles for his war duty.

After the war Frank went to work for a shipping company in Manilla, and was captured by the Japanese when they invaded the Phillipines in 1942.  He spent the war in a prison camp and was less than 100 lbs when rescued.  Frank Buckles currently lives in Charles Town, West Virginia.

Claude Choules and Frank Buckles