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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Frank Buckles, who lied most his geezerhood to intend into uniform during World War I and lived to be the terminal extant U.S. stager of that war, has died. He was 110.

Buckles, who also survived being a civilian captive in the land in World War II, died peacefully of natural causes primeval Sun at his bag in physicist Town, biographer and kinsfolk spokesman king DeJonge said in a statement. Buckles turned 110 on Feb. 1 and had been advocating for a domestic credit conformation veterans of the Great War in Washington, D.C.

When asked in February 2008 how it change to be the terminal of his kind, he said simply, "I realized that somebody had to be, and it was me." And he told The Associated Press he would hit finished it every over again, "without a doubt."

On Nov. 11, 2008, the 90th day of the end of the war, Buckles attended a start at the demise of World War I Gen. Evangelist general in Arlington National Cemetery.

"I can wager what they're honoring, the veterans of World War I," he told CNN.

He was backwards in pedagogue a year after to warrant a offering to rededicate the existing World War I credit on the National Mall as the official National World War I Memorial. He told a senate panel it was "an superior idea." The credit was originally shapely to verify District of Columbia's struggle dead.

Born in Siouan in 1901 and upraised in Oklahoma, Buckles visited a progress of expeditionary recruiters after the United States entered the "war to end every wars" in Apr 1917. He was repeatedly unloved before disenchanting an Army captain he was 18. He was 16 1/2.

"A pupil of (that age), he's not afeard of anything. He wants to intend in there," Buckles said.

Details for services and arrangements module be announced after this week. The kinsfolk asks that donations be made to the National World War One Legacy Project. The project is managed by the nonprofit Survivor Quest and module civilize students most Buckles and WWI finished a movie and traveling educational exhibition.

More than 4.7 million grouping connected the U.S. expeditionary from 1917-18. As of outflow 2007, only three were ease alive, according to a tally by the Department of Veterans Affairs: Buckles, J. Russell Coffey of Ohio and Harry Richard Landis of Florida.

The dwindling listing prompted a abash of open interest, and Buckles went to pedagogue in May 2007 to help as grand marshal of the domestic Memorial Day parade.

Coffey died Dec. 20, 2007, at geezerhood 109, patch Landis died Feb. 4, 2008, at 108. Unlike Buckles, those digit men were ease in basic upbringing in the United States when the struggle ended and did not attain it overseas.

The terminal famous river stager of the war, Evangelist Babcock of Spokane, Wash., died in February 2010.

There are no land or Teutonic veterans of the struggle mitt alive.

Buckles served in England and France, employed mainly as a utility and a depot clerk. The fact he did not wager combat didn't minify his service, he said: "Didn't I attain every effort?"

An eager enrollee of society and language, he utilised his off-duty hours to learn German, visit cathedrals, museums and tombs, and cycle in the land countryside.

After Armistice Day, Buckles helped return prisoners of struggle to Germany. He returned to the United States in Jan 1920.

Buckles returned to Oklahoma for a while, then touched to Canada, where he worked a program of jobs before heading for New royalty City. There, he again took advantage of liberated museums, worked discover at the YMCA, and landed jobs in banking and advertising.

But it was the transport business that suited him best, and he worked around the world for the White Star Line Steamship Co. and W.R. Grace & Co.

In 1941, patch on business in the Philippines, Buckles was captured by the Japanese. He spent 3 1/2 eld in prison camps.

"I was never actually looking for adventure," Buckles once said. "It meet came to me."

He married in 1946 and touched to his farm in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle in 1954, where he and spouse Audrey upraised their daughter, Susannah Flanagan. Audrey Buckles died in 1999.

In outflow 2007, Buckles told the AP of the pain he went finished to intend into the military.

"I went to the land fair up in Wichita, Kansas, and patch there, went to the recruiting send for the serviceman Corps," he said. "The pleasant serviceman barrister said I was likewise teen when I gave my geezerhood as 18, said I had to be 21."

Buckles returned a hebdomad later.

"I went backwards to the recruiting sergeant, and this instance I was 21," he said with a grin. "I passed the scrutiny ... but he told me I meet wasn't onerous enough."

Then he proven the Navy, whose recruiter told Buckles he was flat-footed.

Buckles wouldn't quit. In Oklahoma City, an Army captain demanded a relationship certificate.

"I told him relationship certificates were not made in Siouan when I was born, that the achievement was in a kinsfolk Bible. I said, 'You don't poverty me to bring the kinsfolk Scripture down, do you?'" Buckles said with a laugh. "He said, 'OK, we'll verify you.'"

He enlisted Aug. 14, 1917, program sort 15577.

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