As the AP reports, Landis never served overseas but enlisted during wartime in 1918, training as a recruit for 60 days before the armistice came. Here he recalls his unit’s final march as the war ended:
Landis tried to sign-up for service in WWII at the age of 42, but was denied for being too old to fight.
Of the roughly 4.7-million Americans who served during WWI, the Veterans Administration told the St. Petersburg Times that spotty record keeping makes it difficult to keep track of how many of these vets are still out there.
“I think it’s amazing for us to realize that you have this population of individuals who served during the first great war, and at that time, it was the war to end all wars,” Benson said. “Soon, we will no longer have a living contact. It will all be from the histories left behind.”
