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Veteran celebrates 108th birthdayBy JULIANNE WU, Times Staff Writer© St. Petersburg Times published March 2, 2003 SEMINOLE -- Chalk up another birthday for Alfred Pugh, a World War I veteran at the VA Medical Center at Bay Pines. Pugh, who turned 108 on Jan. 17, received a congratulatory letter Wednesday from Postmaster General of the United States John Potter. Pugh is one of two World War I veterans residing at Bay Pines. Frankie Demeise is 105 and served in France, as did Pugh. They are among an estimated 1,452 World War I veterans still alive as of September 2002, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Also, according to the U.S. Census of 2000, there were 64 men in Florida between the ages of 105 and 109 and 189 women in that same age group. The census doesn't distinguish by ages between 105 and 109. Pugh, who moved to Florida in 1971, has been a resident of the Bay Pines nursing home unit since 1996. Over the years, much has been written about Alfred Pugh. One of 12 children, Pugh was born in Everett, Mass., but grew up in Westbrook, Maine. He has outlived all his siblings. He is recognized as the first Boy Scout in Maine. When World War I broke out, Pugh enlisted in the U.S. Army infantry. Because he grew up in a community with many French Canadians, he could speak and understand French. That helped him when he got to France, where he served from June 1917 to July 1919 and achieved the rank of sergeant. Because he could read the French street signs, the Army had him driving a truck. He was injured by enemy mustard gas in the Meuse-Argonne offensive in September 1918. It caused him to have permanent laryngitis. He is also blind. After World War I, Pugh worked as a telegraph operator for the Boston & Maine Central Railway Co. for 20 years. From 1930 until 1962, he worked for the U.S. Postal Service in Westbrook. In 1999, Pugh was one of hundreds of American veterans named chevaliers of the National Order of the Legion of Honor, the highest honor France bestows. It was an extension of the 80th anniversary of the Armistice on Nov. 11, 1918.
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