Frank Buckles 1901-2011

America's last living WWI veteran has died at the age of 110.

I'm not sure how America feels about WWI. It was sort of glossed over in high school history class and unless 'Legends of The Fall' is your favorite movie, people tend to forget that nearly 20,000 Americans went 'over there' and fought in the 'war to end all wars.' What we accomplished as nation in that war is certainly worthy of discussion- we might have 'made the world safe for democracy' but we also sowed the seeds for WWII in the process.

When I think of America and WWI I always think of that grand moment when General Pershing stopped at the tomb of Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette- and, being famously media averse, having an aide-de-camp deliver the immortal message: 'Lafayette, nous sommes ici.'

But there's a lot more to it than that- and America isn't all that good at history. We tend to forget and try and build Wal-Marts all over it until someone says 'hey wait a minute, something important happened here.' And WWI doesn't rate what WWII, Korea and Vietnam all rate in the cultural memory of the nation.

So kids, take a moment today: remember.

And never forget.