In addition to enduring a lot of intense physical training, a lot of humiliation, a fair amount of crappy food, and a lot of camaraderie among recruits to keep one another going, we did a lot of standing at attention.

A U.S. World War One Poster.

During one such standing-at-attention stint about four weeks into basic training, my knees started to shake… and I couldn’t stop them. The next time, and the time after that, they also shook uncontrollably. Long story short, the medical center determined I had a condition that only was an issue when standing at attention – something I didn't do in the civilian world -- and gave me a medical discharge.

Though my time in the service was short, I still came home flooded with memories … some of them sad or otherwise challenging, but others funny such as being required to salute all squirrels on base for the duration of training by an irate commander.

But I never even completed basic training due to the medical discharge, and I certainly never went to war. Therefore I can only distantly imagine what type of memories any veteran must harbor.

My father and grandfather were both World War II veterans. My grandfather died when I was nine so a few of his stories, and more so stories of the lives of soldier’s wives during that wartime, have come to me from his wife, my grandmother.

My father died when I was twenty so I heard more active duty stories from him, but as he was in an intelligence division of the U.S. Army involved in a variety of very secretive missions in Germany and elsewhere, he mostly had to remain silent about what he had done in the war to his dying day.

So I of course wish I could have heard much more of both of their experiences. Beyond those two, though, there are three men still living with whom I’d love to have long conversations and hear details of their military memories…

Frank Buckles is now 106 and lives on a 330-acre cattle farm in West Virginia.

Harry Landis, 107 Year Old Veteran of World War One.

Harry Landis is now 107 and lives in Sun City Center, Florida.

Russell Coffey is now 108 and lives in a nursing home in North Baltimore, Ohio.

These three are the United States’ last living veterans of World War I, the “War to End All Wars” that lasted from 1914-1918.

To put that into perspective, there are 3.2 living veterans from World War II, 3.1 million living veterans from the Korean War, and 7.3 million living veterans from the Vietnam War.

This past Memorial Day, Frank Buckles got to serve as marshal for the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington D.C. “What are you supposed to do when you lead a parade?” asked the humble Buckles when interviewed. But he did note that he didn’t mind leading it as a salute to his generation.

On being among the last living “Great War” veterans, Buckles says, “For many years, I would read the figures in The Torch [a veterans magazine] in two columns -- one was the number of 4.7 million-something veterans who served, and the other, which kept going down, was the number of us that were still alive. I knew one day it would come to this. But I didn’t think I would be one of the few still around to talk about it."

None of the three veterans was directly involved in fighting on the front lines of World War I, one of the bloodiest in history. Buckles served as an ambulance driver in England and France, and when the war ended in 1918 was assigned to a prisoner-of-war escort company charged with returning POWs to Germany.

Later in his life, while he was on business as a civilian in the Philippines in 1941 during World War, II, Buckles was taken prisoner by the Japanese. He was held prisoner in their notoriously harsh conditions for 3 ½ years, where he lost 50 pounds and witnessed executions of fellow prisoners. He was rescued in 1945.

Meanwhile, in addition to serving in World War I, veteran Harry Landis helped take care of afflicted soldiers during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919 that killed more people than World War I itself.

Another U.S. World War One Poster.

And at 108, Russell Coffey is not only the oldest living World War I veteran, but also the oldest living member of Rotary International, a service organization with over 1.2 million members. He was also recently inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame (yes, there is such a thing!)

Considering that I was only able to serve for under two months but still have dozens of stories to tell about the experience and the wonderful characters who were around me in basic training, these three remaining World War I veterans must have countless memories that we all would love to know … and probably need to know to lend perspective to our times. Surely if anything is a national treasure, they are. Frank, Harry and Russell, I salute you.