A tall, brooding figure emerges from the front porch. Age has taken a bit of toll, but from the firm posture and the humanity in his eyes, you can tell he has lived through stories to tell for an eternity. 

As the Victory Belles, the National WWII Museum’s vocal trio, performs a few numbers outside his house, maintaining the social-distancing norms, Lawrence Brooks raises a cup. A military flyover streak across the Louisiana sky.  

Brooks, the oldest-living US World War-II veteran, celebrated his 111th birthday on September 12. 

Born in 1909, Brooks is a veteran of the 91st Engineer Battalion, predominantly an African-American unit and he served in New Guinea and the Philippines during World War II.

Wishes flooded over from across the country for the national hero and the national treasure on his birthday. The museum received almost 10,000 cards as reported by CNN, which they delivered to Brooks’ house. 

Earlier in the year, he had disclosed that he was extremely proud of his military service, however, his memories of those times are complicated. 

Talking to National Geographic, Brooks said when he was stationed with the US Army in Australia, he was an African-American before the Civil Rights Movement, without even the idea of equality in his home country.

“I was treated so much better in Australia than I was by my own white people,” Brooks said. “I wondered about that. That’s what worried me so much. Why?”

After the war ended, the father of five children, 13 grandchildren, and 22 great-grandchildren, Brooks worked for many years as a forklift operator before retiring in his seventies.

“I had some good times and I had some bad times,” Brooks said. “I just tried to put all the good ones and the bad ones together and tried to forget about all of them.”

As the war veteran is celebrated, in these testing times of global intolerance his key to a straightforward life — “Serve God, and be nice to people” — shall resonate with every heart that pounds.