Oldest living US Second World War veteran celebrates his 110th birthday

Lawrence Brooks was aged 31 when he began service in the US Army during World War Two
AP
Ewan Somerville16 September 2019

The oldest American veteran of the Second World War has celebrated his 110th birthday.

Lawrence Brooks, from New Orleans, has now joined an exclusive club of only 500 confirmed "supercentenarians" known to have lived.

The former US Army engineer, born in 1909, welcomed in his 11th decade with a birthday party laid on for him at the National WWII Museum in Louisiana.

The veteran, who has 22 great-grandchildren, has reportedly never experienced heart problems, cancer or any other major diseases, and said of his milestone: “Makes me feel good. Yes, indeed it does.”

Lawrence Brooks is blind in one eye but has never had any major medical problems
AP

Mr Brooks served in the US Army between 1940 and 1945, spending most of his time in the majority African-American 91st Engineering Battalion in the Pacific Theater fighting Japanese forces.

He puts the secret to his old age down to living with relative Vanessa Brooks, and: “Because I’ve always liked people so much. Oh yes, I do.

“I’ve started to think about not having many birthdays left. But I'm not worried about it, because God has let me live this long already.”

The museum has made celebrating his birthday an annual affair since he turned 105 in 2014.

The National World War II Museum in New Orleans has celebrated Lawrence Brooks' birthdays for the last five years
AP

Museum vice-president Peter Crean told NOLA.com that staff “absolutely love Mr Brooks” and consider him “our veteran”, adding that they told him at the party: “As long as you keep having birthdays, we are going to keep having birthday parties for you here.”

Mr Brooks was aged 31 when first called up to fight, and took part in the famous Louisiana Maneuvers war games in 1941, an event used to test troops’ strength before America joined the war.

Later he became the assistant to three white officers, tasked with driving them, providing their meals and laundry.

“They just sort of took a liking to me,” he recalled. “The [officers] treated me like a soldier and not their servant.”

While he never held a gun during the war he could not avoid danger, once finding himself hurling barbed wire out of an aircraft to shed weight after an engine failed.

“There was the pilot, the co-pilot and me and just two parachutes,” he said. “I told them: ‘If we have to jump, I’m going to grab one of them.’”

When the war concluded, he returned to New Orleans to work as a fork lift operator before retiring aged 70.

Tragedy struck in 2005 when Mr Brooks’ second wife died shortly after they were evacuated by helicopter in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He has five children, two of whom have died, 13 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.

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