IamA 102 year old WWII vet, still mobile, healthy and in

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I am 102 years old, alive and well. I am an American WWII vet, retired Major in the Army Air Corps. as Flight Surgeon. There was recently an article about me in the local news paper, Tribune-Herald, here:

http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/sections/news/local-news/102-year-old-vet-reflects-service.html

Self described as "I'm the oldest person I've ever met."

(disclosure: input to reddit performed by grandson).

My Proof:

http://imgur.com/Hu80NNO http://imgur.com/Rh4DPPL

EDIT: Afterword From Grandson

Thanks for everyones participation. Grandpa is finished answering questions; he was tickled by all the questions and public interest in his life. This went way bigger than we ever expected & we really appreciate the Reddit community for playing along.

I have known my grandpa since I was a baby all the way into my "middle age" years, for which I feel very fortunate to have known him this long. So many of my friends' grandparents already passed away long ago, many while my friends were still children. Our family has been lucky to have him and grandma with us for such a long time.

Many of the questions and comments highlight grandpa as war hero and focus on his life as a veteran (understandably since that was the focus of the newspaper article and how I presented the IAMA). Some Redditors also may be romanticizing the WWII period, perhaps from war movies and other mass media, and convey a sense of macho toughness onto my grandpa.

The interesting thing about this is that grampa does not view himself these ways (eg. as a war hero or Army tough guy), nor does his close family. I think the reason is that the time he spent in the military was < 5% of his actual lifetime, and this period was all before his grandchildren and children were born. WWII is not a common topic for discussion with him, and being a vet is not as strong source of personal identity for him as having been a physician. We see the heroism of this part of his life because the patients he cared for were mostly poor and middle class people.

This different perspective Reddit provided actually made the IAMA even more interesting to me because of how so many people relate to his military past, and let us reflect about him in a slightly different light.

Thanks again Reddit!

Comments: 1913 • Responses: 51 • Date: 2013-12-19 23:21:10 UTCsource

102_years_wwii2500 karma2013-12-20 00:02:38 UTC

"No one asked what's that best thing that ever happened to me... you know what it is? how I got into Medical School! I was taking a course in physical chemistry, and after I took the final exam the prof called me into his office and he told me I was the only one of 50 guys that I got a perfect score on exam. He was on the admission committee of the medical school. He said he was going to get me into medical school. So he did. It was a very an event that made me feel very good, it turned out not to be important because I was admitted to 3 medical schools. St. Louis, Duke and Temple." (He went to Temple).

IamA 102 year old WWII vet, still mobile, healthy and in touch with the world. AMA!