A veteran who served his country during World War II celebrated his 100th birthday on June 15, receiving a staggering 4,500 cards from well wishers. This is one of those stories that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. We need a lot more of that these days, wouldn’t you agree?
According to a report published by Breitbart News, Carl Reid signed up to serve in the United States Army back in 1944, where he became a supply clerk and truck operator for the 27th Infantry Division.
Back in May, Reid put out a message to fellow Americans on social media, asking if they would join him in celebrating his big day by sending cards to him at the Lamun-Lusk-Sanchez Texas State Veterans Home located in Big Spring.
Originally, Reid has hoping to receive at least 100 cards, one for each year of his life. Instead, he received thousands of them, blowing his expectations clear out of the water. The veteran ended up celebrating his birthday with family, friends, and a whole lot of birthday cards. He ended up getting cards from 48 different states and even got one all the way from Canada!
“It’s nice to have all my friends here,” Reid went on to say during an interview with local news outlet NewsWest9. “I was broken up when I got out there.”
After his time serving in the Army was up, Reid then raised a family and worked on a farm. His sons spoke very highly of their father, saying he provided them with a good life. Donald Reid, one of Carl Reid’s sons, stated that the purpose of the party was to heap tons of love on their dad, giving him the affection they say he deserves.
“[Just to say] thank you for all the things he had done for us when we were growing up and continued to do over our lives, and to just tell him how much I love him,” Donald remarked about his father. “He’s always been there for us if we needed anything, and just a good, strong man that you could lean on.”
“[A]ccording to US Department of Veterans Affairs statistics, 167,284 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are alive in 2022,” the National WWII Museum website states.
Featured image is a screenshot taken from embedded video.
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