What is age of the youngest surviving WWII veteran?

We had a volunteer here at the museum who served in the last year of the war 1945-46 and was 17 at the time of enlistment. He is still alive and is 91 I believe.

In the US over 16 million men served during WWII, so they are likely still quite a number still alive. While the media and others have kept track of the oldest living service person from WWII, I don't know if there is anyway to find out who the youngest living veteran is.

Lisa Sharik

Deputy Director

Texas Military Forces Museum

Dear Ms. Hohl,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

The National Archives does not have information about former service personnel on file.  The Federal agency most likely to have such information is the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and there is no guarantee that their information is complete and current for all veterans as they are only involved in providing services to veterans and their survivors that apply for them rather than actively tracking all veterans throughout their lives. They also may be restricted in sharing specific names and birth dates of individuals for reasons of privacy.

While the minimum age for conscription was 18, 17 year olds could sometimes volunteer with parental consent. In regards to those that enlisted fraudulently at the age of 16 or below, one organization that may be able to assist you is the Veterans of Underage Military Service. You also may wish to contact Joshua Pollarine of Historical Research Associates, Inc who wrote Children at War: Underage Americans Illegally Fighting the Second World War.

We hope this information is helpful.  Best of luck with your research!

Mr. John Tosh, the Director of the Texas Air Museum in San Antonio, Texas, is 87 and still going strong.  He is a member of the Veterans of Underage Military Service, being only 15 or so when he enlisted in the U.S.Army.  He didn't make it overseas before the war ended.  He served in the Army, the Army Air Forces, and he was there for the beginning of the U.S. Air Force. He is a WWII, Korean, and Vietnam was veteran.

The youngest United States Service member that saw combat during World War II was S2/C Calvin Leon Graham assigned to the battleship USS South Dakota 4 October 1942, he was 12 years old.

If you want a "Hollywood" version of Calvin Graham's story, there was a move made about it. Ricky Schroder plays Graham in the movie Too Young the Hero. Of course there was some artistic freedoms so, please don't quote the movie as historical fact. We have a photo of Graham and Schroder together and its an interesting chapter to his (Graham's) life.

I think, Calvin Leon Graham is the youngest WWII veteran who died November 6, 1992 at the age of 62.

My Dad, SGM James O Schmidt, was 14 when he got his jump wings at Ft. Bragg- 1942 His birthday is 10/1/1927  He was sent to North Africa then jumped into Sicily with the 504 at 15. His age was discovered after being wounded and he was sent home. Ran off joined the Navy and at 16 with a purple heart was discovered again while on a destroyer and sent home. He went on to fight in Korea and SGM Special Forces Vietnam. He lives in Anchorage AK . There is a documentary about him called "Grandpa's War Story Goes Viral."

Gotta LOVE his persistence!

Bless his heart...

I am author of a historical novel RIDE THE WILD WIND, set in the 1965 era in a fictional southwestern NM town near the borders of El Paso and Juarez; the Sheriff, born in 1921 served in WWII - Guadacanal, Okinawa, Pelieu, etc. Although I am, with 85 years on the planet, currently finishing up my write of the sequel, with one character who served in Vietnam, two others in Korea; so am grateful for this site that gives me a bit more information, and glad to find that a few WWII are still with us, and grateful to those who served in Vietnam, Korea and the on-going "police" actions..

I am author of a historical novel set in the 1965 era in a fictional southwestern NM town near the borders of El Paso and Juarez; the Sheriff, born in 1921 served in WWII - Guadacanal, Okinawa, Pelieu, etc. Although I am, with 85 years on the planet, currently finishing up my write of the sequel, with one character who served in Vietnam, two others in Korea; so am grateful for this site that gives me a bit more information, and glad to find that a few WWII are still with us.