[VIDEO] This 100 Year Old World War II Veteran Was Honored at a Fourth of July Parade in Indiana

“Oh my goodness, what a surprise!”

Those were the appreciative words of a very special World War II veteran honored in Cicero, Indiana this week.

Check out this video from WTHR-TV that shows Thomas Yetman wearing a WWII VETERAN cap and enthusiastically waving an American flag as he smiles from the passenger seat of a dark blue 1977 Corvette as an honored participant in the Cicero Independence Day parade.

While he was helping celebrate the nation’s 243rd birthday on this Fourth of July, Yetman will be celebrating a momentous birthday of his own with a party on Sunday, the day before he turns 100 on July 8!

Yetman’s son Raymond told WTHR how his father was trained as a gunner in the 454th Bomb Squadron of the Army Air Corps, but ran into some problems when officials learned he had come to the U.S. from the Isle of Man, a small country south of England, as a 2-year-old.

“He was called to service and sent to Colorado to do basic training and he realized he had never become a naturalized citizen, so they rushed him down to the government building there to swear him in as a citizen and then rush him back to boot camp,” Raymond said.

Thursday, so many years later, he was still reflecting on the soldiers that served alongside him.

“It was a terrible war. The things that you see and hear about is hard to believe, but it cost a lot of good men,” he said.

Decades later, Yetman was still drawing praise from an appreciative crowd at the parade.

“Sir, I would like to thank you for your service,” one woman told him, extending her hand.

“Thank you, thank you very much,” he humbly answered. “Much appreciated.”

Also much appreciated was a surprise gift from Aspen Dental, which is working on giving him a new set of dentures in honor of his 100th

Source:
WTHR-TV

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