Decorated World War II veteran opts to celebrate 100th quietly (2024)

Pondering a routine ice-breaker often posed to folks whose birthday odometers roll over into triple digits, Horace Barrett thought for a second and repeated the question before answering.

“What’s my secret? I’ve been very blessed. I’ve never had any serious (health) situations,” he said. “Except for the gunshot wounds.”

Barrett, who celebrated his 100th birthday Thursday — Pearl Harbor Day, by the way, played a role in some of the most consequential battles of World War II.

He parachuted into France with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division on D-Day, fought in Operation Market Garden in Holland and the Battle of the Bulge.

And yes, he was wounded four times during the war.

“We didn’t know it when we went,” Barrett said earlier this year about his friends in the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of 82nd, “but we had front-row seats for history.”

Declining the fanfare

I’ve talked to Barrett several times through the past dozen years. Getting to meet people like him is one of the perks of the job.

Like hundreds of thousands of his peers in the greatest generation, his life as a husband, father and regular tax-paying Joe working at Western Electric is much more than a few years in the service.

But as the numbers of surviving veterans decline — according to the National World War II Museum, some 119,000 of the 16.1 million Americans who served in some capacity remain — we should, however, continue to celebrate and thank those remaining at appropriate moments.

His cousin, an attorney named Wesley Bailey, certainly does.

“That rascal turned down an offer to bring up soldiers and some bigwigs from Fort Bragg or whatever the name is now,” Bailey said about various proposals to mark a milestone. “He said, ‘I don’t want all that.’”

(The new name would be Fort Liberty. It was officially changed in 2022 as part of a push by the Army to rename bases named for Confederate leaders.)

A big show, if Barrett had wished, would have been fitting. He is, after all, the last surviving member of his unit who jumped on D-Day.

It’s neither a title he sought nor one upon which he dwells. He learned it by chance in 2022 when he was contacted by a publication in Europe tracking down those paratroopers.

“There were two of us,” Barrett said during an earlier conversation. “The one guy was 102. I am the longest living member of the 508th regiment of the 82nd Airborne who’s still around. I guess my (claim) is that I’ve been blessed with good health.”

His view to history included serving as a guard to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and seeing in person Gen. George Patton and British Field Marshal Bernard “Monty” Montgomery.

Beyond those details, Barrett tends to keep the rest to himself. He declines most well-meaning invitations to speak or be honored for his time in the Army.

At the urging of his daughter, he wrote a book “My Story: Every Soldier has a Story” to preserve his experiences, but these days he’d just as soon discuss other things.

And that’s why “talking about old times,” as he put it, was the focus when he and a small group of friends and family gathered to celebrate.

Staying active

The serious answer to the standard question about the secret to a long and happy life — combat wounds notwithstanding — is simply that Barrett takes care of himself.

He stays active, a habit he picked up in his youth and carried with him throughout his time in the Army, marriage and fatherhood after coming home to Winston-Salem at the end of the war.

Barrett still walks two miles and does 40 pushups every day and minds his diet, which helps him keep his weight at a steady 145 pounds.

He played football at Hanes High School, joined the Boy Scouts and belonged to the YMCA for as long as he can remember.

“Everything I could get into,” he said. “I’ll brag on myself a little about that.”

What he won’t do, not without prompting from Bailey and others who hold him in some esteem, is talk up his service. Few soldiers have been awarded four Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars.

“I’d do it again,” Barrett said simply. “The Army has done me good.”

So, too, has the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. That he will discuss freely.

“Some people say bad things about the VA,” he said. “But The VA really takes good care of me. They know everything about me and everything I do.”

He demurred, though, at the suggestion that the nation, at minimum, owes him decent health care. “Oh, I don’t know about that,” he said.

Still, regular visits, preventative care and prompt access to doctors surely played a role in Barrett’s continued good health.

“I’m doing great,” he said of his birthday. “It’s a pretty good experience. I’ve had a bunch of ‘em.”