The Wrangell sentinel., 1909-07-22
(kfIE SANS MD[N [IVINC 6NDiEff'

mark, Uncle Sans oldest soldier re
 gently celebrated his ninety-seventh ! birthday in Washington. He is Major
 General Daniel H. Fucker, L. S. A. re-
 tired, born ninety-seyen years ago
 April 2S 1872. h the whole history
 of the military service of the United
 States there is no record to parallel
 his, declares O. F. Schuette in the | Chicago Inter Ocean. Probably in all 1 the world there is no soldier who can
 look back seventy-two years to the | date of his first commission. For it
 was in 1S37 that the future general re- ceived his first commission as a second
 lieutenant from President Andrew ] Jackson. He was then a man of 25-
 little dreaming that he had before l him three-quarters of a century of life. 1 If he lives three years longer, and
 with his present vigorous vitality
 there is no reason he should not, he will cross the century mark of life
 and celebrate the end of three-quar- 1 ters of century of membership on
 the military lists of the United States government.
 1 Away back in the dawn of our na. 1 tional greatness. our school book his | tories tell of the war of 1872. Yet l Daniel Fucker was two months old
 before the first shot of that war was
 \ Creek Indian war. Five years later came the hostilities with the Semin- ! oles in Florida. And then came out | break after outbreak of Indian con
 ficts. II was in this Indian warfare
 away back in the sos that he saw his i first service. He won his first pro.
 motion for bravery in the Mexican
 war Then again he participated In Indian warfare. He was 49 years old
 when Fort Sumter was fired on. When I the Spanish war broke out he was s6 l years of age. But he had retired i from active service sixteen years be fore. with forty-fye years of service ! to his credit.
 It Is a far cry from the clumsy. muzzle-loading flint lock to the noise less, smokeless. rapid-fre rife of to-
 day And it is a further cry from the wooden frigates that formed the fleet of the United States and won those splendid naval victories on the
 great lakes. when he was babe in 1912. to the marvellous squadron of | fighting ships that sailed home from @ triumphant trip around the world. When General Fucker first joined the ranks of Uncle Sam's defenders there was no such thing as breech- loading muskets, no sixteen inch guns no torpedoes, no mines. no lyddite shells No warship was propelled by steam and all the fleets of the world
 were at the mercy of the wind and of the waves. Then came the Civil War and the first ironclads. General Fucker had passed the half century
 mark of his life when the first battle
 of armored ships was fought and the i triumph of the Monitor in beating of 1 the Merrimac and turning the tide of
 the Confederacy on the seas. Yet 1 that was but toy experiment of what
 was to follow. Progress was slow, and ! 1t was thirty years before the armored vessel of today really came into be 1 ing General Rucker was S7 years old
 when the navy of the United States
 worthy successor of the plucky little ! fighters of 1812-sent to the bottom in
 two hemispheres the successors of the
 proud Spanish armada.
 It is a long jump from the clumsy | frigate, with its muzzle loading guns, ] its shaking sails and its limited range
 of action. to the Dreadnoughts of to-
 day. with their heavy armor, their
 speed. their powerful engines and
 their wonderful range; and there have
 been other marvels just as great in
 the progress Of his profession. When
 he took his first commission, and
 rode 200 miles on horseback alone to
 his post, no one had thought of auto
 mobiles or airships or wireless tele-
 graph. much less of their revolution
 ary use in actual warfare.
 neu Geneldl hucheF was DOTn AD- raham Lincoln was 3-year-old babe
 in the backwoods of Kentucky. Gen
 eral Fucker was 10 years old, minus just one day, When General Grant
 saw the light of day, April 27, 1922. Only one President of the United
 States died before General Fucker was
 born-George Washington. He was II
 years old when John Adams and ] Thnmas Iaffarsnn died on that same