George LaRoche stood in the large banquet hall and began the roll call from a list of 116 veterans who long ago agreed to gather each year until only one survived.
One by one he called out their names, knowing full well no one would be there to answer. Amid the silence, the small, tabletop American flags in honor of each man were laid down. Only one flag remained upright.
LaRoche, the 85-year-old Navy veteran who served in Korea and later around the globe during the Cold War, is the last surviving member of the VFW's Last Man's Club in Faribault — a group of men who served in World War I, World War II and the Korean War. It was up to him alone to pay tribute to his military brothers at the group's annual meeting on Aug. 14 — the anniversary of V-J Day — and call an end to the club that was established in 1957.
A flag flew in honor of the club's members for much of October at the local American Legion, where they met after the VFW folded.
"It's over," LaRoche said in an interview.
A few weeks before the last meeting, LaRoche made a pact with William Boosalis, the only other surviving member of the club. "I told Bill that we should just end it with the two of us," LaRoche said. But Boosalis, a 95-year-old World War II Navy veteran, died four days before the meeting.
Scanning the roll call list, LaRoche can easily recall each man's face and their stories. "I can't remember what the hell time I got up this morning," he said. "But I can remember all of them."
They gathered each year for the camaraderie, he said. "It was just a good time," he said. "We had a common bond. We never talked about war. Everybody knew what everybody else had done."
