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I was just wondering if it's occurred to others of you here that, with the passing in recent years of the last WWI combat veterans, there is no one left on the face of this old rock who has the right to wear the campaign medals of 'The Great War'.



With the exception of the cinema, you will never again see the "Pip, Squeak, and Wilfred" worn on a veteran's coat. I know time marches on and all, but I just find this to be rather sad.

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Lou, I am with you on that. The medals are now relegated to dusty storage or museums and there will never again be the chance to shake the hand or dialogue with a wearer. More so, they will be missed on Remembrance occasions. I have thought about this for quite a long time. It's good to hear someone else has had the same thoughts. I guess it is nothing new. We have faced the same in the passing of veterans of other long gone conflicts such as the Boer War, USA Civil War, War of 1812, etc., etc.

What gets me is when I see an old veteran pass away and the family is going through his stuff how much history, and physical indications of valor (read medals and decorations) just get thrown away because the NOK have zero knowledge as to the history they are holding or the sacrifice that wrought these trinkets. And they never bothered to find out.
I think that these men are only truly gone if we forget about them and that appears to be happening.
Everyone knows what g-d Taylor Swift or those Kardashian weirdos had for breakfast though.

Our family "super HERO" Charles Ash began as a 17 year old Marine in the South Pacific and after Korea, and then Vietnam he retired a "chest full". He passed a few years ago at 86. My brother ( also a Marine ) and I
made sure all knew what each and every one of the ribbons stood for.

Back in the 1980's, I drove a taxi for a while in the Chicago suburbs. One of my constant passengers was an old WWI navy vet and his wife. He served on the USS New York (BB-34), while it was attached to the British Grand Fleet. Sometimes, when they weren't pressed for time to go places, he'd tell me what it was like on that old ship.

It's odd for me to think of it now, but I miss talking to that man and his wife. They were great people.

I think the worst part is...... when the whole history dies with these fellows and later generations forget. Years later we just read about it but have no real understanding of these events, their consequences for later generations etc.... And then we go a repeat the same thing over and over again.

I was thinking about the same thing quite recently when I visited my parents and again saw the WW2 medals of my maternal grandfather.

But that's just the way things are. Human life is very short, and our collective memory doesn't seem to be too long either. WW2 is ancient history to most people, WW1 even more so, because no veterans of that conflict are still among the living to remind us of those days.

As a medal collector, I like to think that one useful aspect of this hobby is the preservation of historical objects and their stories.

Hmmm... for me, the WW1-Era has always been a very distant History. Grainy, stuttering black and brownish-white Motion-Picture-Strips, Photos of dignified Persons in awkward Uniforms with Ostrich-Feathers, that had a closer Connection to Napoleon than de Gaulle...
It is mainly because of this Forum, that my Perspective has widened.
The War was not fought by staid, serious Men wearing weird Mustaches and "Pickelhauben", these Soldiers all were more or less Teenagers, tossed into something, that noone (until today) could really understand or even describe...
I'm thinking of a Video from Jasta11, someone posted here. What one saw there, was a bunch of Boys, far away from being Adults, obviously joking around or trying to look cool, because the Camera was running...
That really did not fit into my former Point of View...

I hear you all; and I know it's hopelessly Polyanna starry-eyed dreamy, but I hope a day will come when the only reason we need medals for bravery is for rescuers. War is hell, and I can tell that having never been in combat. I have a quote from "Calvin & Hobbes" on my cube - Calvin dejectedly saying "Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."

I think things like WOFF can help keep that memory alive, though, and could even be used educationally. Kids sit around with their video games and play extremely unrealistic games - if you can get their attention long enough, sit'em down and show them what it was really like - and remind them there is nothing glamorous about sending a fellow human to an agonizing death. In real life, a promising, talented life has been ended. The family gets the message, and mothers, sister, children dissolve in tears (while us guys try not to, but dang, I'm clouding up just writing this - I'm a maudlin sort, I guess) - there is the stunned shock that persists through the funeral, and the hole that never really refills.

That's a big reason why I fly & support WOFF. It's "as real as it gets".

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It's comforting to know I've such fine company, who have also considered these things. Time is fleeting and history becomes less and less clear the farther removed it is from the present. There are so many things worth remembering from our collective pasts, it's a shame so little effort is spent trying to do so. Human nature I suppose, and yet that very natures dooms us to repeat the mistakes over and over. What a waste.

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Lou, I guess there must be many more good people like Hasse and you.
And then there are those like me, who do not collect such items,
but read books and remember it that way.
You are not alone.