Armistice Day 2007

[Pioupioudave14]

Hello all.  On this 89th anniversary of the Armistice, may I offer my salute in honor of the brave poilus of the Great War.
--Dave

[Jean LL]

Merci Dave 

[X]

thanks Dave. Sad to say, the last "poilu" passed away a few months ago... and a few years later it will be WW II veterans.

[88LL]

Thks Dave,

I'm pleased to read that even in the USA someone is paying tribute to my grand-grand father who died while leading his Chasseurs Alpins in a bayonet charge against an ennemy position during August 14 in the Vosges.

[Robin]

thanks Dave. Sad to say, the last "poilu" passed away a few months ago... and a few years later it will be WW II veterans.

On the radio, they said two are still alive (109 and 110 years old)...

[Pioupioudave14]

thanks Dave. Sad to say, the last "poilu" passed away a few months ago... and a few years later it will be WW II veterans.

On the radio, they said two are still alive (109 and 110 years old)...

Yes, I am afraid that all we will have left is memories, all too soon.  I read the stories, I see the photographs of the moonscapes and the horribly wounded survivors, and I ask myself:  "Could I ever be that brave enough to go through all of that?".  A very sobering thought indeed.

--Dave

[Pioupioudave14]

Thks Dave,

I'm pleased to read that even in the USA someone is paying tribute to my grand-grand father who died while leading his Chasseurs Alpins in a bayonet charge against an ennemy position during August 14 in the Vosges.

You are very welcome, 88L.  Courage and honor do not know national boundaries.

--Dave

[X]

On the radio, they said two are still alive (109 and 110 years old)...

You're right. One of them was seen on TV, on a wheelchair, saying that he had made it again this year and didn't know if he would be there next one.

What's even most amazing is that he survived the whole XXth Century and both wars...

[Sgt-humphrey]

Dave, if you now that...
How many of US veterans of the great war are still alive this day ?

[Pioupioudave14]

Hi, Sgt-humphrey.  There are three U.S. veterans left.  Two were in Basic Training in the U.S. when the war ended, and the other one (Frank Buckles) made it to France, but never saw action.  I think that's all there is.  No last airman, no last Marine, no last sailor, no last wounded veteran, no last combat veteran.  There was an article in The New York Times about this.  The author says that very soon the Great War will be 'only a memory that cannot be touched'.  By the way, in the U.S. we call this Veterans' Day now, do you still call it Armistice Day in France?  I believe the British call it Rememberance Day.

--Dave

[Sgt-humphrey]

Armistice that's right ! 

a memory that cannot be toucher - for sure ! But a living memory for a lot of us