As the following Washington Post Article documents, Alan Wood, the WWII veteran who helped raise the flag on Iwo Jima, passed away at the age of 90 years old. The photo, which became the subject of the Iwo Jima Memorial in the Arlington National Cemetery, captured a moment of pain and triumph for a generation of veterans. Mr. Wood poignantly recalled the events leading up to the raising of the flag: “I was on the ship when a young Marine came along. . . . He was dusty, dirty and battle-worn, and even though he couldn’t have been more than 18 or 19, he looked like an old man.” “‘Do you have a flag?’ he asked me. ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘What for?’ He said something like, ‘Don’t worry, you won’t regret it.'”
While the population of living WWII veterans continue to decline, clearly many are still going strong. As the following NJ.Com Article documents, 88-year old NJ WWII veteran, Dick Subber, is being celebrated for 27-years of volunteer service at the Kennedy Hospital in Washington Township, New Jersey. Mr. Subber credits his longevity to good genes and believes that “the best gene in my life is my wife [of 68 years], Jean.” Mr. Subber explains that a happy marriage can be attributed to one simple factor, “You just love the heck out of them.” Mr. Subber demonstrates that Albert Einstein is not the only genius from New Jersey.