Mayor Gonzalez Cites Last Surviving WWI Vet on Veterans Day Event

(Chicago Heights, IL) – The 100th anniversary of the end of World War I and the “sacrifice” by U.S. soldiers during that and other military conflicts were central themes of Chicago Heights Mayor David Gonzalez’s remarks at the city’s Veterans’ Day remembrance ceremony.

Speaking before an audience at the Chicago Heights Park District on November 11, Gonzalez highlighted not one of the big, pitched battles of the “Great War” against the German and Austrian Empires, which lasted from 1914 to 1918, but to its conclusion.

“We do not come here today to glorify war,” said Gonzalez. “As has been so often said, there is nothing noble in war except its end. It should be the hope of every sane human being that war will one day be eradicated.”

Gonzalez cited the experience of the last surviving American soldier from the war, a farm boy from Missouri, Frank Buckles, who witnessed the bloody reality of war.

“Frank was only sixteen when he left on a troop ship bound for the front, and he drove an ambulance in France and saw firsthand the ravages of war fought on an epic scale,” said Gonzalez. “Even on days when there was no fighting, soldiers still died in his ambulance, and while visiting the trenches, he was shocked to meet boys his own age – who looked and sounded like old men.”

Buckles lived to the age of 110.

However, approximately, 116,000 American soldiers died and 204,000 were wounded during the war, which the U.S. only entered on April 6, 1917

Gonzalez appealed to Chicago Heights citizens to remember soldiers’ “tremendous sacrifices” made during the country’s various military wars and conflicts.

“There are no more Frank Buckles to remind us of the horrors of the First World War, and each day, there are fewer and fewer left from the Second World War and the Korean War,” said Gonzalez. “That’s why it is imperative for us to take this day – to remember the tremendous sacrifices made by our veterans on behalf of our liberty.”

Following the ceremony Gonzalez attended a luncheon for the veterans and the Ladies Auxiliary.

davidormsby@davidormsby.com