The Last Are Departing

The death of fellow-blogger Montag’s father, reported on his site yesterday (link), set me to calculating the life-spans of the Greatest Generation. Montag’s father died at 92 and would have been 25 at the conclusion of World War II, a young Navy lieutenant. My own father, who fought on the other side—opposing Russian advances in Poland—saw the light of day in 1907 and passed (quite young by the life-expectancy these days) at 74 in 1981. Generations have long shadows that, of course, are almost invisibly dim as time passes. The last Civil War veteran died in 1956. He was Albert H. Woolson, 18 when that war ended. He died at age 109. We join Montag and his family in this leave-taking and wave our own farewells on the beach of the Greater Ocean.