100-Year-Old WWII Veteran Gets Emotional Says’ this isn’t the ‘country we fought for’: The silver star recipient claims that his service in World War II was the most significant thing he has ever done.
100-year-old WWII vet breaks down
According to U.S. Marine Carl Spurlin Dekel, who turned 100 this week, most of what American soldiers fought for in World War II has “gone down the toilet.”
Fox 13 reports that Dekel considers his service to his country during World War II to be his most significant accomplishment. The soldier and Silver Star recipient says he wouldn’t think twice about risking his life once more, but he regrets how far the United States has fallen from what he remembers.
People are unaware of their possessions, Dekel told the publication. “Everything we did, everything we fought for, everything the boys gave their lives for—all it’s been for nothing.”
He claims, “We absolutely do not have the same country we have when I was young.” “Nobody will enjoy it as much as I did. Nobody else will get the chance I did. Simply put, it isn’t the same, and that was not the cause of our boys’ deaths.
The day Dekel made his remarks, the United States lost its final surviving WWII Medal of Honor recipient. In the company of his family, Hershel “Woody” Williams passed away on Wednesday at the age of 98 in his native West Virginia in a hospital bearing his name.
Williams, a fellow U.S. Marine, was awarded a medal of valor in 1945 at Iwo Jima by then-President Harry Truman.
Williams was praised by America’s 63 active Medal of Honor recipients in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Friends and family of Woody Williams said in a statement provided through the Congressional Medal of Honor Society that they “known him as a West Virginia farmer’s son and the youngest of 11 children who tirelessly supported his family after his father passed away.”
He was a corporal who volunteered for a mission on Iwo Jima to carve a path through enemy pillboxes that were damaging American tanks, according to his fellow Marines.
“Through his work as a Veterans Service Representative, he became known as their champion among veterans in West Virginia.
Gold Star families were familiar with Woody because of his efforts to raise money through the Woody Williams Foundation for scholarships and other initiatives.
He was a hero and a friend to us, his fellow Medal of Honor recipients. He will be sorely missed.
Williams expressed to local media that he hoped to witness a return of patriotism in the United States during an interview on Memorial Day, echoing Dekel’s sentiment of loss.
Williams told WSAZ during a veterans’ ceremony, “I’ve been here maybe 25 to 30 times, but I believe today we had more honor wreaths than we’ve ever had, and that’s encouraging.
It gives me hope that the United States of America, which once had such a strong sense of patriotism and love for the nation, is returning.
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