Taps for WWI veterans

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Scrawny but determined to fight in World War I, Howard Ramsey scarfed down banana after banana to bulk up enough to enlist. Today, he is still feisty at 108.

At 16, Frank Buckles lied about his age so he could go to war against the Germans in France. Now 105, he still runs his West Virginia cattle farm.

The son of former slaves, Moses Hardy and his segregated unit battled the enemy in horrific trench combat. Now 112 or 113, he says the only doctor he needs is Dr Pepper.

These remarkable "doughboys" -- and about two handfuls more -- are members of an increasingly fragile fraternity, relics of a world-changing conflagration little remembered today.

Once they stood 4.7 million strong: American farm boys, factory hands and tradesmen itching for adventure, all called by their country to fight "the war to end all wars."

Now, when the 88th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I arrives tomorrow, there won't be enough surviving U.S. veterans of that defining conflict to fill a platoon.

When 2006 began, an unofficial roster of known remaining American WWI veterans listed only about two dozen names. Eleven months later, those ranks have dwindled to 12, Scripps Howard News Service has confirmed. Perhaps a dozen more, who joined the armed forces after Armistice Day and served in the immediate aftermath of the war, are still alive.

With an average age of 108, it is unlikely these numbers will hold up for long. All are pushing the envelope of human longevity, especially Emiliano Mercado del Toro of Isabella, Puerto Rico, who at 115 is both the world's oldest living man and the longest-lived U.S. veteran in history.

"The torch is quickly passing," said retired Brig. Gen. Steve Berkheiser, executive director of the National World War One Museum in Kansas City, Mo.

So is an era that seems ancient by today's standards. Many of these veterans were born under a U.S. flag with just 45 stars and have lived in three centuries. They have seen 19 presidents lead the nation through seven wars. Their lives began before airplanes, radio, talking movies and antibiotics. Animals were a more common mode of transportation than tin lizzies, as early autos were called.