NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A New Orleans World War II veteran has celebrated his 107th birthday at the city’s World War II Museum.
NOLA.COM/The Times-Picayune reports that Lawrence Brooks attended a ceremonial birthday party honoring his service Monday.
The newspaper reports Brooks was a private in the Army’s mostly African-American 91st Engineer Battalion. They were stationed in New Guinea and the Philippines. The unit built infrastructure such as bridges, roads and airstrips.
Brooks was assigned as an orderly to three white officers during a time when the Army was still segregated.
Wearing a gray suit, he walked into the museum and then his daughter requested a wheelchair to conserve his strength.
Speaking of the changes he’s seen in more than a century, Brooks says he never expected to see a black president.