WWI Veteran still alive at 109.

Nearly a century ago, Missouri native Frank Buckles lied about his age, enlisted in the Army and went to fight in World War I. The year was 1917. Buckles was 16, and his service went largely unnoticed — that is, until Buckles became the war’s sole survivor in the United States, states the Columbia Tribune.

Now at age 109, he receives plenty of recognition, especially when Veterans Day rolls around. He has become an ambassador of sorts for a war long since forgotten and for the generation of heroes who quietly passed away without getting much appreciation for their service to the country.