Inspiration From Another Generation
Friday, July 11th, 2008
Frank Woodruff Buckles enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 16 on August 1st, 1917, less than four months after the U.S. entered into World War I. During World War II he was a civilian prisoner of war and spent more than three years in Japanese POW camps. He is now, at age 107 the last surviving WWI veteran. From the day he entered the service, Frank Buckles has seen 17 presidents lead our country. This last March he was honored by an interview with president Bush in the oval office.
It is kind of funny for me to call him Frank Buckles because growing up I knew him as Uncle Woodruff. He is my great-great-uncle. The last time I saw him was when we traveled to the east coast to visit when I was a kid. I remember him showing us his cattle farm and the trip we took where he showed us historical places and told us stories of our family many generations ago.
Uncle Woodruff is a man characterized by self discipline and persistent endurance. He does 50 situps a day, lifts weights three times a week and refuses to put “retired” on his income tax form. He reminds me very much of the temperament of Paul saying, “…Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave…”
So, here is the question for myself: Is my life characterized by dicipline? Could I be witness to horrers and such great trials as evading starvation in a Japanese prison camp and have the fortitude to press on? I spend a lot of time analizing the evolution of the current generation… Perhaps I have much to learn from the past…
