Frank Buckles lied to more than one military recruiter that he was 18 years old. After finally claiming to be 21 when in fact he was only 16 he entered into the United States Army. He would later become the last surviving American veteran of World War I.
In 1941, he was working for a shipping company in Manila, Philippines. He was captured by the Japanese, and spent the next three and half years in the Los Baños prison camp. Despite being malnourished and developing beriberi (inability for the body to breakdown energy molecules), he led his fellow prisoners in calisthenics. The allies took the camp in late February 1945.
