And Then There Was One

Last week we took a look at a great website following the letters written by a WWI soldier.  Now comes news that one of France's two remaining WWI veterans, Louis de Casenave, has died in his sleep at the age of 110.  Here are some numbers to consider (via BBC):

-8.5 Frechmen served in the military during WWI.
-4.5 million were wounded.
-1.5 million were killed.
-And now there is one person left alive: Lazare Ponticelli.

Ponticelli, also 110-years-old, provided a strong reaction to former French president Jacques Chirac's call for a state funeral when the time comes for Ponticelli to be laid to rest.  The event would be, as many can recognize, a momentous occasion in French history as an entire generation effectively fades into the sunset.  Ponticelli, however, doesn't see the need for anything special (AFP):

"The first men to fall in the trenches deserve to be honoured as much as the last," Lazare Ponticelli said, according to his daughter Janine Desbaucheron, upon learning of fellow veteran Louis de Cazenave's death on Sunday.

Additionally, Ponticelli's daughter said if there were to be a state funeral in honor of her father, there would have to be conditions telling the AFP:

"It would have to honour all those men and women who fell."