ecovlke's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another World War I Veteran Passing Another World War I Veteran Passing (AP) Russell A. Buchanan, one of the nation's last surviving World War I veterans, died Wednesday. He was 106. The longtime Watertown, Mass., resident suffered a stroke the day before Thanksgiving and died at Mount Auburn Hospital, said Marge Schwendenman, executive director of Brigham House, an assited living facility in Watertown where Buchanan spent his last two years. Buchanan served in the Navy in the final months of World War I and then enlisted in the Army to serve in World War II when he was in his 40s. He remained physically active in his old age by regularly walking at a local shopping mall well past his 100th birthday. He participated in a Veterans Day event at the Statehouse last month, Schwendenman said. Buchanan at first tried to join the Marines but was turned down, he told The Boston Globe in a 2001 interview. He was allowed to join the Navy in 1918 only after gaining a few pounds to make the 118 -pound minimum. Between the wars, he worked as a pressman with Cambridge Paper Box Co. After joining the Army in 1940, he was sent to Europe. There are 14 confirmed World War I veterans still alive in the United States, said Terry Jemison of the federal Veterans Affairs Administration. 10:05 a.m. - 2006-12-09 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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