France just buried the last of it's soldiers from World War I with a full state funeral and full honors for all 8.4 million Frenchmen who fought in the war.
The French military and French Foreign Legion honored Lazare Ponticelli, 110, as France's last soldier who fought to stop the Imperial German advance into French territory at the start of the war. He joined the Foreign Legion as an Italian immigrant at age 16 and survived the war.
He would attend the yearly Armistice Day observations at Kremlin Bicetre, which is a suburb of Paris, and did so for nearly 90 years.
France lost 1.3 million soldiers during the four years that the war raged; French President Sarkozy lead tributes honoring that entire generation as part of the state funeral for Ponticelli, as he had wanted.
France did their World War I vets proud this day. I hope our own government is making similar plans to honor our World War I veterans when our last known soldier of World War I passes away.
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