By Howard Wilkinson
Enquirer staff writer

Robley Rex, 103, received a Commander-in-Chief's Medallion at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention on Tuesday. Rex is the only surviving World War I veteran in Kentucky and one of about 200 in the nation. The Enquirer/MICHAEL E. KEATING

Evan Liska, 4, grandson of VFW Commander-in-chief Edward S. Banas, Sr. watches veteran Richard Udoff from a Maryland color guard during the presentation of colors.

Most of the men attending the national Veterans of Foreign Wars convention downtown have lived their share of American history, combat veterans who have fought at places with names such as Anzio, Khe Sanh and the Chosin Reservoir.

But none has lived as much of the nation's history as the short, frail man who hobbled down an aisle at the Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center Tuesday morning during the VFW's business session, smiling and nodding to the veterans who reached out to shake his hand and pat his back.

"I guess I'm one of a kind," said 103-year-old Robley Rex of Okolona, Ky., a suburb of Louisville and a lifetime member of Okolona VFW Post 8639.

He is one of a kind - the only surviving World War I veteran in Kentucky, according to the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs.

In 1917 and 1918, 4.7 million American soldiers - known to history as "the doughboys" - fought the Kaiser's German legions across France and Belgium and into Germany.

Robley Rex joined them as a young buck private at the tail end of the war and stayed in Germany with the 28th Infantry Division long after the armistice was signed, mostly doing administrative work for an intelligence company.

"I was no big hero," said Rex, who had to strain to hear the people who came to wish him well. "I did my duty."

While the World War II generation is rapidly aging and passing away, some 4 million of the 16 million who served are still alive.

WWI GENERATION

While there are nearly 26 million living military veterans in the United States, the generation that fought World War I is nearly gone. Vietnam Total service members: 9.2 million Living: 8.2 million Korea Total service members: 5.7 million Living: 3.5 million World War II Total service members: 16.1 million Living: 4.3 million World War I Total service members: 4.7 million Living: Fewer than 200 Source: U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs

RESOLUTIONS

The 105th national Veterans of Foreign Wars convention took advantage of Tuesday's break between presidential candidates to tend to its own business, including setting a "to-do'' list for its team of Washington lobbyists. Veterans' health care and national defense will top the VFW's legislative agenda in the year to come, said John Furgess, the Vietnam veteran from Nashville, Tenn., who will become the new national commander-in-chief on Friday, the last day of the week-long convention at the Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center. "These are the items that our members tell us they want action on,'' Furgess said. "We get our marching orders from the rank-and-file at these conventions.'' Tuesday, thousands of veterans met in the same exhibit hall where President Bush spoke Monday and where John Kerry will speak this morning to pass a number of resolutions that will give the VFW's Washington lobbying office guidance for the next session of Congress. In addition to its annual call for mandatory funding of veterans health care, the convention approved resolutions in support of: • Continued development of a ballistic missile shield for the U.S. • Continuation of the ban on homosexuals from the military. • Increased funding for the departments of Defense and Homeland Security. • An increase in base pay for the active-duty military. The delegates also heard Tuesday morning from Anthony Principi, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, who gave a short speech in which he promised to "continue to do our best to serve you and the young men and women who are serving today.'' E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com

But fewer than 200 of the doughboys are living, according to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates.

The thing that makes Rex so remarkable is not just his longevity, but what he has done with it.

Three days a week the 103-year-old hitches a ride with a friend to the VA Hospital in Louisville, where he volunteers. His duties include dropping off samples at the hospital lab, delivering paperwork and walking from room to room to talk to veterans of later wars.

He has logged more than 13,000 hours of volunteer work since 1986, his friends say.

"I try to cheer the boys up," he said, "and I guess I usually do."

Rex left the Army in 1922, came home to Louisville and made his living as a postal worker and as an ordained Methodist minister. He and his late wife, Grace, had no children, but he does have a family - his fellow veterans of Post 8639 and the women of the post's Ladies Auxiliary.

Several of the Ladies' Auxiliary members drove him to Cincinnati Tuesday morning so he could receive a Commander-in-Chief's Medallion.

As Rex walked slowly up the aisle after accepting his medallion, veterans by the dozens jumped out of their seats to greet him.

Rex waved and smiled at them all.

"He's eating this up," said Martha Allen, one of the Okolona women who brought Rex to Cincinnati. "He's a sweetheart. Nobody deserves it more."

At Okolona Post 8639, Rex is a fixture, serving as post chaplain and never missing a post meeting.

Joe Schnitterbaum, the post commander, said Rex was cutting the grass at his home until he was 95.

"We told him, 'Robley, you're not going to do this any more,' " Schnitterbaum said.

Ever since, Schnitterbaum said, the post has paid a neighborhood kid to cut their friend's grass.

What Rex really looks forward to, Schnitterbaum said, are the dances the VFW post holds.

"You ought to see that old man dance," Schnitterbaum said. "He takes his cane and sticks it through the belt loop on the back of his pants, grabs the first lady he sees and off he goes."

Rex joined the VFW in 1924 at the national convention held that year in Cincinnati.

"I remember that very well; I stayed in the Sinton Hotel," said Rex, referring to a hotel that was torn down decades ago.

Sitting on a folding chair outside the convention, as conventioneers continued to file by and take his picture, Rex asked a Cincinnatian if the Sinton was still around.

When told it was long gone, he laughed.

"Oh well," the veteran said. "I guess I outlasted it."

E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com