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These ten amazing veterans are among the oldest of the fast- disappearing WWII generation.
1] Tadeusz Lutak (Age 109).
He was there on Day 1. He’s part of a tiny cohort of living veterans from the first day of the deadliest conflict in human history. Lutak is officially the oldest living man in Poland, having just celebrated his 109th birthday on 29 August. He saw action in the opening hours of WWII, serving as a motorcycle courier in the Polish Army as it tried to repel Hitler’s invasion. After escaping from a German prisoner transport train, he spent the rest of the war in the underground Polish Home Army. He was married for 69 years. “Sometimes the faces of my fallen comrades haunt my dreams - September 1st always brings back those memories,” he has said. “Time passes, but what we did to save Poland from destruction never leaves you.”
2. Lt. James Clayton Flowers (Age 110).
Wow. I have only 50 years left to catch up with Flowers – the oldest living military veteran in the United States. He served as a fighter pilot with the 99th Fighter Squadron, the US Army Air Forces’ first African American fighter squadron, escorting bombers over Southern Europe and Germany. In March 2026, he received the New Mexico Medal of Merit. “Being old isn’t the work of a sissy,” he has said. “You get so you don’t think as well and you don’t hear as well, so people have to indulge you. My father used to say, “You’re once a grown man and twice a child.””
3. Gus Preno (Age 109).
The first day of this month marked the 87th anniversary of the outbreak of WW2. Some 30,000 veterans of that global conflict are still alive in the US. Gus Preno is one of a small band of D-Day veterans. He served in the U.S. Navy aboard the destroyer USS Melville on June 6, 1944, at age 27, considered old back then. After the war, he worked for AAA for almost five decades. “Everyone was worried,” he has recalled. “We were all so concerned about the lives of those young troops on the beach. Looking back now, I’m just fascinated. I can’t believe I am still here to remember them.”
4. Maj. Gen. John C. Raaen Jr. (Age 104)
My favorite because I’ve met him. A West Point graduate, Raaen was a 22-year-old captain commanding Headquarters Company in the 5th Ranger Battalion. He survived the deadliest beach on D-Day, Omaha, unlike more than 900 of his fellow Americans. He rallied men under relentless machine-gun fire, earned a Silver Star, and is today the last surviving U.S. Army Ranger officer from the D-Day assault – the last of some 1,500 Rangers who saw action on that longest of days. He received the Congressional Gold Medal in late 2025 after 36 years of service to his country. According to Raaen: “We didn’t think about making history on that beach; we just thought about surviving the next five minutes. Being this age means carrying the heavy honor of speaking for the boys who never left that sand.”
5. Ray Anthony (Age 104)
Born January 20, 1922, Anthony is truly a living legend – the last king of the big-band era. He directed a Navy band stationed in the Pacific Theater, performing near front-line islands under terrible conditions to entertain brutalized troops. Today, he is the last surviving member of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, which makes him a god in my eyes. “Music was our way of keeping the horrors of war at bay,” he has said. “To be 104 and look back at that era makes me realize how lucky I was to bring a little bit of home to the kids fighting in the Pacific.”
6. Boris Kravtsov (Age 103)
Wow! There were about 11,600 recipients of the Hero of the Soviet Union title during World War II – the USSR’s highest military decoration, perhaps equivalent to the Medal of Honor. That’s out of around 34.5 million people who served in the Soviet Armed Forces. Kravtsov is the last living recipient. As a Red Army artillery officer, he survived staggering attrition on the Eastern Front, orchestrating massive artillery barrages to hold off advancing German Panzer divisions. “The Eastern Front was a machine of total destruction,” he has said. “Living past one hundred years feels strange when so many millions of my generation were cut down before they could even turn twenty.”
7. Arnald Gabriel (Age 101)
Born May 31, 1925, Gabriel was just 19-years-old when he landed on Omaha Beach as a machine gunner with the famous “Blue and Gray” 29th Infantry Division. He fought through the deadly bocage and into Germany, earning two Bronze Stars. He used music to cope with severe combat trauma after the war, eventually becoming the Commander and Conductor of the United States Air Force Band during a 36-year career. He’s among the youngest of WW2 vets today, but I’ve included him because he belonged to the same unit as the Bedford Boys, and because of the youthful joy he still projects – a lesson to us all. Smile, be grateful, think of the big picture, enjoy every day, dance to the music of time. “I survived the bullets on D-Day for a reason,” he has said. “At over 100 years old, every time I pick up a conductor's baton, I am conducting a memorial to the brave men of the 29th who died right next to me.”
8. Hikaru Kato, (Age 112).
The Japanese are known for their longevity, working long past retirement age, fueled by sushi and a sense of purpose. Kato is currently the oldest living man in Japan, aged 112. Yes, that’s one hundred and twelve years on this fragile planet. A former clerk with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, he was conscripted at 24 and served in Taiwan and the Philippines, where he was wounded in the right leg. He returned to Japan in 1946 and helped rebuild Japan’s agricultural base before teaching pottery.
9. Vitantonio Lovallo (Age 112).
He’s thought to be Europe’s oldest living man. Whatever espresso he’s still sipping, I’d like some, too! He survived a German prison camp during the war and then spent decades as a shepherd. He attributes his remarkable longevity to… yes, you guessed it… an active lifestyle and a lean, Mediterranean diet. I’m moving to Italy if I reach 100, and I’ll gladly follow his advice, between cappuccinos, to “always take very few medications, and only when they’re really needed."
10. Nancy Stratford (Age 107).
Last but not least, we come to Nancy Miller Stratford – she celebrated her 107th birthday this June. During World War II, she served as a civilian ferry pilot for the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), becoming one of only 25 trailblazing American women recruited to transport military aircraft for the Royal Air Force. Just one reason why, as a Brit, I am completely in awe. Operating under very tough conditions without radios or instruments, she logged an incredible 900 hours, flying 50 different types of aircraft, including her favorite, the Supermarine Spitfire… mine, too! Today, she is widely celebrated as the last surviving “Attagirl” pilot.
