Another WWI vet dies.

I post this as WWI vets are getting pretty scarce. 

TORONTO — The last veteran of the First World War believed to have seen action has died, leaving only four Canadians still alive who served in the 1914-1918 conflict.

Clarence (Clare) Laking died at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto on Saturday.

Laking, who was 106, served on the front line as a private with the Canadian Field Artillery, 27th Battery, 4th Brigade.

In 1917, at 18 years of age and against his minister father's wishes, the native of Campbellville, Ont., enlisted in the 64th Battery in Guelph, Ont.

After serving in the war he went on to farming and business, and was still driving at 102 years old.  That was one tough SOB.  We note his passing and wish him Godspeed.

We are now getting to the point that WWI is like the Civil War was at when I was a kid.  I remember the last veteran of the Civil War dying at 100+, he'd been a drummer boy in the war. 

All things pass to the mists of time eventually, but we as a society need to make a special effort to remember these guys.  They fought for what we have today, they deserve to be remembered with honor.  So today I remember Clarence Laking, and another tough Scotsman, my Grandfather.  Saw the elephant and lived to tell the tale.  May my children remember them still in another hundred years.

The Phantom