{"id":13107,"date":"2024-08-29T21:50:07","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T21:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/?p=13107"},"modified":"2024-11-03T01:02:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T01:02:28","slug":"scholarships-pulled-university-of-texas-students-removed-after-kneeling-during-anthem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/?p=13107","title":{"rendered":"100-year-old WWII veteran breaks down in tears; \u2018This isn\u2019t the country we fought for\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nMuch of what American soldiers fought for in World War II has \u201cgone down the drain,\u201d according to U.S. Marine Carl Spurlin Dekel, who celebrated his 100th birthday last week.<\/p>\n

Dekel says serving his country in WWII was the most important thing he ever did, according to Fox 13. The veteran and Silver Star holder says he wouldn\u2019t hesitate to put his life on the line again, but regrets that the U.S. has slipped away from what he remembers.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t realize what they have,\u201d Dekel told the outlet. \u201cThe things we did and the things we fought for and the boys that died for it, it\u2019s all gone down the drain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t got the country we had when I was raised, not at all,\u201d he says. \u201cNobody will have the fun I had. Nobody will have the opportunity I had. It\u2019s just not the same and that\u2019s not what our boys, that\u2019s not what they died for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dekel\u2019s statements came the same day the U.S. lost the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from WWII. Hershel \u201cWoody\u201d Williams died Wednesday at 98 years old, surrounded by his family at a hospital named after him in his home state of West Virginia.
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\nWilliams, also a U.S. Marine, received his medal for heroism from former President Harry Truman during the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s 63 living Medal of Honor recipients honored Williams in a statement to Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

\u201cFriends and family of Woody Williams knew him as a West Virginia farmer\u2019s son and the youngest of 11 children who dutifully supported his family after his father died,\u201d they wrote in a statement through the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. \u201cFellow Marines knew him as the corporal who volunteered for a mission on Iwo Jima to clear a lane through enemy pillboxes that were destroying American tanks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVeterans in West Virginia knew him as their advocate through his work as a Veterans Service Representative. Gold Star families knew Woody through his work raising money for scholarships and other programs through the Woody Williams Foundation,\u201d they continued. \u201cWe, his fellow Medal of Honor Recipients, knew him as our friend and one of our heroes. We will miss him greatly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams echoed Dekel\u2019s sentiment of loss during an interview on Memorial Day, remarking to local media that he hoped to see a resurgence of patriotism in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been at this probably 25 to 30 times, but I believe today we had more honor wreaths than we\u2019ve ever had before, and that\u2019s encouraging,\u201d Williams told WSAZ during a veterans\u2019 event. \u201cIt gives me encouragement that we\u2019re coming back and that we will again be that United States of America that had so much patriotism and love of country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much of what American soldiers fought for in World War II has \u201cgone down the drain,\u201d according to U.S. Marine Carl Spurlin Dekel, who celebrated his 100th… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14259,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13107\/revisions\/14259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}