Our veterans have sacrificed so much for us, it is incredibly important that we continue to recognize their bravery and celebrate them while they are still with us!
Gary Sinise is an actor who has made sure all veterans know they are special to us!The National World War II Museum in New Orleans on Wednesday was set to host an extravagant event for World Wa r II veterans. People with flags were lined outside the venue to celebrate the oldest living veteran from the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor.
The event was mainly to honor 105-year-old Joseph Eskenazi of Redondo Beach, California. “It feels great,” Eskenazi told the media. Eskenazi is now a great-grandfather and joining him at the event were his 5-year-old great-grandson as well as his 21-month-old great-granddaughter.
Eskenazi turns 105 on January 30th and boarded the Amtrak train in California on Friday so he could reach New Orleans for the event. Other veterans representing the A.rmy, Navy, and Marines, also flew in for the event.This was all thanks to actor Gary Sinise’s Soaring Valor Program, a charitable foundation dedicated to aiding veterans and first responders. The program arranges trips to the museum for World War II veterans and their guardians.
Eskenazi was a private first class in the A rmy when the Pearl Harbor attack happened. He distinctly remembers the at tack describing being woken up by a b omb falling near to where he was sleeping but failing to e xplode. He also recalled the Schofield Barracks, reverberating with ex plosions as the bat tleship USS Arizona was sunk due to Japanese b ombs. The veteran recalls that the machine g un fi re from e nemy planes was kicking up dust around them, and he still volunteered to drive a buIIdozer across a field so it could be cleared and used as a runway.