The Last of the Greatest Generation: What America Loses as Its WWII Veterans Fade Away
Published: 17 October 2025
By Allen Frazier
via the Military.com website
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The hat of retired U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Frank S. Wright, who fought at Iwo Jima, sits on a table during an interview in Stockton, California, Aug. 30, 2025. Wright, who turned 100 this year, is among the fewer than 50,000 WWII veterans still alive—the youngest of whom are all approaching or exceeding 100 years old. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Haley Fourmet Gustavsen, Defense Visual Information Distribution Service).
World War II will soon transition from living memory to documented history, with VA projections from earlier this year estimating the last veterans may be gone within the next decade.
Even the youngest WWII veterans are approaching their 100th birthdays. By the mid-2030s, the last living American who fought at Pearl Harbor, D-Day or Okinawa will likely be gone, and history’s deadliest and most defining conflict will transform from an event some can remember into something people can only study from secondhand sources.
The Department of Veterans Affairs counts approximately 45,418 WWII veterans still living—less than 0.5% of the 16.4 million Americans who served. As recently as 2023, roughly 131 veterans were passing away every day. That number is likely much lower now, but only because the overall numbers have decreased so much in recent years.
By 2036, VA projections estimate only 300 veterans will remain, and soon after, none.
A Transition America Has Faced Before
When U.S. Army veteran Frank Buckles died in February 2011 at age 110, World War I ceased to exist in living memory. Even after his 100th birthday, Buckles was able to describe the malnourished children he saw in France, the casualties on the front, or what it was like to drive an ambulance or a motorcycle during the war.
Frank Woodruff Buckles, February 1, 1901 – February 27, 2011 (Photo by David DeJonge.)
His death on Feb. 27, 2011, marks the day WWI became purely historical and the day it was no longer possible to ask a veteran about those experiences. America will soon face a similar date for World War II.
The decline has accelerated dramatically. By 2000, there were roughly 5 million WWII veterans still alive. In 2015, about 930,000 WWII veterans remained. By 2018, fewer than 500,000 were left. Today’s figure represents a 95% decline in a decade. VA statistics project fewer than 8,000 will survive past 2030.
The Final Commemorations
The 80th anniversary commemorations this year likely represented one of the last major anniversaries when significant numbers of veterans will be present.
The Soaring Valor program, a partnership between American Airlines, the Gary Sinise Foundation and the National WWII Museum, took its final charter flight in September after a decade of flying veterans to New Orleans. Since 2015, the program honored more than 1,500 WWII veterans with over 30 flights, pairing them with high school students to pass on their stories to younger generations.
“Soaring Valor journeys are about honoring duty, sacrifice and a legacy of service,” said Randy Stillinger, American Airlines’ manager of veteran and military programs. “On each flight, generations came together in a moment that bridged past, present and future. These stories will continue to echo through history long after the final flight has landed.”
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