Roy N. Scow
Corporal, U.S. Army

Roy N. Scow was born on 18 July 1896 in Manhattan, MT.

Scow volunteered for the U.S. Army in 1917 and was among the first American troops to join the fighting in Europe. His unit took part in the final push against the German Army in the fall of 1918. An exploding artillery shell during one October battle cost him most of his hearing. He was discharged from the Army in 1919.

Medals and Awards

Silver Star Medal
Purple Heart
Victory Medal with 4 Battle Clasps

In 1998 at age 102, he was awarded France's Legion of Honor Medal, that country's highest honor.

Civilian Life

After his discharge in 1919, he returned to Montana where he worked on the Northern Pacific Railroad and at the State Liquor Warehouse in Helena.

He was interviewed in 2001 at age 104, for an oral history project of the Library of Congress. When asked how he has lived so long, he said he smoked cigars, chewed snuff and drank Jack Daniels all his life. At age 105, he still made it his daily chore at the nursing home to raise the American flag each morning and take it in each evening.

He was America's oldest, and last, living World War I Combat Veteran.

Death and Burial

Corporal Roy N. Scow died on 11 April 2004 at the Evergreen Nursing Home in Clancy, MT, at age 107. He is buried at the Montana State Veterans Cemetery in Helena, MT.