Last Friday, a Marine celebrated his 100th birthday. On December 7, 1941, he was sitting in the “great room” of his fraternity when news of Pearl Harbor arrived in the form of a shout. A fraternity brother was listening to the radio and loudly announced that the Japanese had bombed Pearl. America was at war, and so were each of the “brothers” in the house. Some joined right away. Others waited.

This Marine finished his freshman year and then enlisted. Why the Marines? “Because the Marines are first in the fight,” he said. //

He knows that he was one of the lucky Marines to come home. The heroes, he said, never came home.