Last WWI combat vet has died

[BJJ-Blue]

"SYDNEY -- Claude Stanley Choules, the last known combat veteran of World War I, has died.

His daughter Daphne Edinger told The Associated Press that British-born Choules -- nicknamed "Chuckles" by comrades -- died in a nursing home Thursday in his adopted home of Australia.

He was 110.

Choules joined the British navy as a teenager and served on the battleship HMS Revenge, from which he watched the 1918 surrender of the German High Seas Fleet.

He later migrated to Australia and served in the military for more than 40 years.

According to the Order of the First World War, a group that tracks veterans, Choules and another Briton, Florence Green, were the last known surviving service members from the conflict. Green served as a waitress in the Women's Royal Air Force."

Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/05/04/wwi-vet-died-family-says/

[KC Elbows]

We have one of the largest US WWI memorials in the country here. It's quite amazing, not leaning toward any sort of glorification, facing the horrors that the vets faced.

BJJ, if you're ever in the area, you should really check it out.

[BJJ-Blue]

If I'm ever up there, I'll hit you up. I'm actually travelling for work next week, but it's not to KC. Thanks for the info and invite. :)

[KC Elbows]

If I'm ever up there, I'll hit you up. I'm actually travelling for work next week, but it's not to KC. Thanks for the info and invite. :)

It's always open, to most forum members. KC is a great town.

If you ever want to look it up, the memorial is the Liberty Memorial, it's in KC, MO.

[David Jamieson]

Yep, he was a Canadian who joined the British Navy at 14 and was seconded to the Australian Navy in ww2.

He became a pacifist and thought the construct of war was nonsense.

He felt that old men sent young men off to war on whims for the sake of power and wealth.

I tend to agree.

There are no just wars really, just killing in the name of.

[BJJ-Blue]

There are no just wars really, just killing in the name of.

Yeah, we should have just let the Nazis and Tojo's Japan run roughshod over any country that they could conquer. :rolleyes:

[David Jamieson]

Yeah, we should have just let the Nazis and Tojo's Japan run roughshod over any country that they could conquer. :rolleyes:

Hitler needn't have risen to power and it was the ignorance and greed of germans, swayed by his charisma and the spirit of the times.

Japan needn't have been stuck in an imperialistic model of governance even before they got involved in ww2.

How about YOU though? How about more recently and the American false flag "Gulf of Tonkin" incident that kicked off the secret war? was that just?

I love how you bring up ww2 like you're some old vet or something.
You are going to justify killing people for geopolitical ideals because Hitler once existed? And by eh way, in case you didn't know, take a look at when your country started to lift their head off the pillow and get involved with taking care of Hitler.

In the end, it was Russia who took care of him.

I support strategic assassination. I always have and I think Reagan was a drunken moron for ruling it out and I think Obama is a genius for bringing it back in with the big take out that just happened.

I know OBL wasn't a head of state, but that assassination should have happened ages ago.

[BJJ-Blue]

David, You said there are NO just wars. So I gave you one example of a just war. I'm not saying ALL wars are just, but to say NONE of them are is ridiculous.

[Drake]

War is an unfortunate necessity. You'll always have someone wanting to conquer their neighbors or destroy those who they dislike. And someone has to be the one to step in their way. RIP.

[David Jamieson]

David, You said there are NO just wars. So I gave you one example of a just war. I'm not saying ALL wars are just, but to say NONE of them are is ridiculous.

I'm saying they aren't. And it is not ridiculous to be anti war.

It is ridiculous to not defend yourself, I concur with any sentiment in that regard.

Hitler thought what he was doing was just.
So did Stalin and he was our Ally.

WW2 wasn't a just war. It was a defensive action that had to be turned into decimation because the attackers would not give quarter. That doesn't make the war in total just, it makes it protracted.

It would have been far more expeditious to simply assassinate the Nazi party commanders early on. People do understand the ramifications of such men coming to power.

The Japanese were a harder nut to crack because they collectively believed their emperor to be divine.

I would continue to go ahead and take out despots and autocrats. There is no justice in killing the people they have taken rule over.

Head off snake= body dies.