February 27, 2011 Frank Buckles, America's last World War One veteran died. Frank joined the military at age 16. Spent WWI in Europe. He spent most of WWII in a Japanese POW camp even though he was a civilian.
America has no more WWI veterans to salute.
WWII veterans were dying at a rate of over 1025/ day in 2005 I am sure that the rate has increased since then. Meaning that by 2020 there may not be any WWII veterans left to salute.
I have not been able to find any estimate on how rapidly Korean war veterans are dying other than the 2000 census which indicated Korean War Veterans were Dying at a rate of 383/day.
By 2027 we may not have any Korean War Veterans to salute.
Next are the numbers that are hard for me to put on paper. According to the Department of Veteran ASffairs, Vietnam Veterans are dying at a rate of 295/day. Numbers vary but the most consistent number of living Veterans who serve in Vietnam is approximately 850,000. Those numbers mean that Vietnam veterans may well all be gone BEFORE the last WWII veteran dies.
The average WWII veteran today is well over 80. If the statistics on Vietnam Veterans is correct, I will not live to see 70.
Given these numbers, I think I will chose to live each day to the fullest. I will be writing my bucket list immediately. If you have any suggestions on what I should include on my bucket list, I am open to anything.
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