SOURCE: St. Mihiel Trip Wire http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/02/13/oldest_us_veteran_mourned/ National Guardsmen carried the casket of Antonio Pierro, 110, yesterday. Pierro (below) was the state's last remaining veteran of World War I. (Lisa Poole for the Boston Globe) Oldest US veteran mourned Italian immigrant's life touched three centuries By Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff | February 13, 2007 SWAMPSCOTT -- As mourners sang a somber version of "America the Beautiful" yesterday morning, a military honor guard draped a flag over the casket of Antonio Pierro in the final tribute of its kind in Massachusetts and one of the last for the nation. Pierro, 110, an Italian immigrant whose life touched three centuries, was the state's last remaining veteran of World War I and the oldest veteran in the United States, according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Only seven US veterans of that war are known to be alive. "He is united with comrades who gave their life in that world war he fought to end all wars," the Rev. Dennis Burns said in his homily at St. John the Evangelist Church. "He committed himself to put his life in danger for the sake of the new country he had chosen." Pierro, who died Thursday at a Salem nursing home, served for 18 months as an artillery soldier in France. Drafted only three years after immigrating to the United States in 1914, Pierro became familiar with the carnage of that horrific war. In a 2006 interview with the Globe, Pierro recalled taking horse-drawn supplies to the front lines and returning with bodies. "You're at the front line, you duck the shells coming your way," he said. "It was no fun." Pierro had been given a chance to fight for his native Italy, an ally of the United States, but chose to go to war with his adopted country, his family said. After the funeral, a six-member escort from the Massachusetts National Guard strode solemnly beside the casket to the front doors of the church. There, another soldier slowly covered the coffin with a US flag before the honor guard stepped stiffly down the steps of the waterfront church to a waiting hearse. The church that said goodbye to the last Massachusetts veteran of the war to end all wars will also be the venue for the Bay State's most recent combat fatality. St. John's will host the funeral Mass for Marine Captain Jennifer Harris, 28, a helicopter pilot from Swampscott who died Wednesday in a crash in Iraq, Burns said. In his homily yesterday, Burns spoke briefly of Pierro's military service, but lingered longer on the life he had forged as an immigrant. Born in the southern Italian city of Forenza in 1896, Pierro followed his father and brothers to Swampscott and eventually found work at a shoe plant, the body shop of a car dealership, and General Electric's small-aircraft engine group in Lynn. "He lived out his whole life in gratitude for what he had found here," Burns said. Richard Pierro, the veteran's nephew, praised his uncle's life-view in a eulogy. "We all were inspired and impressed with the way he carried himself," Pierro said. Whether imparting wisdom about eating "three square meals a day" or "getting plenty of sleep," the elder Pierro adhered to similarly simple rules for an extraordinarily long, upbeat life, his nephew said. "Uncle Tony was always the hit of the parade," Pierro said. The Rev. Thomas Corcoran, who helped celebrate the Mass, recalled helping Pierro mark his 105th birthday, adding that "he had all of his wits about him." Pierro's memories of World War I were not all horrific, Corcoran said, including one of a "mademoiselle named Madeleine." "He said he always wondered what happened to Madeleine," Corcoran recalled with a smile. The church has been the site of three other funerals linked to the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the war in Iraq. Services have been held there for Robert Jalbert, 61, who died when United Airlines Flight 175 was flown into the World Trade Center; Atlantic Monthly editor Michael Kelly, 46, who died in Iraq in 2003 while covering the US invasion; and Army Specialist Jared J. Raymond, 20, who died in September when his tank struck a roadside bomb. © Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.