America’s oldest veteran dies
NZPA-AP » Lebanon, Pennsylvania Nearly nine decades after he fought in the Philippines and in the Boxer Rebellion, the United States’ oldest military veteran died yesterday. He was 109. Mr Pleate was declared men-
tally incompetent in 1909 and was scarcely aware of the birthday parties held every year for him. Doctors at the Veterans’ Administration medical centre in Lebanon said that he had died from bronchial pneumonia. “He just wouldn’t wake
up,” said a hospital spokesman. “The parts just normally gave out, like a car.” Mr Pleate was born on October 10, 1876, in Bridesburg, now part of north-east Philadelphia. He enlisted in the army on February 24, 1899. He was discharged on February 3, 1902, five
months and a day before Congress officially declared an end to the SpanishAmerican war. Mr Pleate had no surviving family. He had spent the last 48 years in V. A. hospitals in Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
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Press, 7 December 1985, Page 10
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156America’s oldest veteran dies Press, 7 December 1985, Page 10
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