96-Year-Old World War II Veteran Says Americans Need to Unite

A 96-year-old World War II veteran attending a ceremony to honor those who died at Pearl Harbor says Americans need to unite to defend against modern threats.

Many veterans for WWII attended the ceremony at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, including the oldest surviving veteran, 110-year-old Frank Levingston, of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

The ceremony featured a solemn playing of taps and a wreath-laying.

Recalling his call to duty, retired Lt. Col. Alfred Shehab, a Lebanese-American born in Cape May, New Jersey, and residing in Fort Meade after a career at Goddard Space Center, said when the attack on Pearl Harbor was announced on the radio, he didn’t believe it at first.

“I enlisted,” he said. “I don't believe in the draft. I feel when the country's in trouble, you go.”

At 96, he keeps up with the news.

“We’re all Americans, not Arab or Irish or anything else,” he said. “We've been separated.”

Yet, he remains confident in America.

“This country is unbelievable,” he said.

Sounding like he was ready to suit up, he added, “As long as we remain that way and remain one, they'll never get us.”

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