Opinion
Oldest WWII veteran in US dies at 112
Lawrence Brooks, America’s oldest World Warfare II veteran, has died on the age of 112.
The Nationwide WWII Museum confirmed Brooks’ demise and introduced it to the general public on Wednesday, Jan. 5.
“He was a pricey pal, who celebrated his birthday with us yearly beginning in 2014, when he was only a spry 105-year-old,” the museum wrote in a sequence of heartfelt tweets.
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Brooks was born on Sept. 12, 1909, and was one in every of 15 kids, based on a memoriam the museum issued on the time of his demise.
Within the final two years, Brooks celebrated his birthday with socially distant drive-by parades because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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World Warfare II veteran Lawrence Brooks died on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022, on the age of 112. On this file photograph from Sept. 12, 2019 — his one hundred and tenth birthday, Brooks holds a photograph of himself, which was taken in 1943.
(AP Picture/Gerald Herbert)
Brooks grew up in Norwood, Louisiana. He was drafted into the U.S. Military in 1940 on the age of 31. As a non-public, Brooks was assigned to the predominantly African American 91st Engineer Battalion. All through WWII, he was stationed in Australia, New Guinea and the Philippines.
Regardless of the adversity Brooks confronted in the course of the Jim Crow period, he rose to the rank of Personal 1st Class.
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In accordance with a 2014 interview with the Nationwide WWII Museum, Brooks mentioned the officers he served beneath handled him effectively. He additionally expressed that he felt lucky to have been given a service function slightly than a fight one.
“I don’t haven’t any onerous emotions towards no person,” Brooks mentioned in the course of the interview. He continued, “I bought fortunate. I used to be saying to myself, ‘If I’m going to be taking pictures at someone, someone’s going to be taking pictures at me, and he would possibly get fortunate and hit.’”
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Following the struggle, Brooks labored as a forklift operator for 40 years in New Orleans. His wife, Leona Parker Boyd “Lee” Brooks, died in 2008 on the age of 81.
Brooks is survived by his 5 kids, 13 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren.
The Nationwide WWII Museum’s president and CEO Stephen Watson remembers Brooks as being a form and devoted man with humorousness.
President Joe Biden issued a proper assertion about Brooks’ demise, saying, “I’m saddened to study that Lawrence Brooks — who was the oldest surviving U.S. WWII veteran — has handed. I had the honour of talking with him final yr, and he was actually the most effective of America. I’m maintaining his family members in my prayers.”
