{"id":479937,"date":"2025-06-14T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=479937"},"modified":"2025-06-14T21:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T21:52:11","slug":"va-recognizes-four-world-war-ii-era-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=479937","title":{"rendered":"VA recognizes four World War II-era Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Family members and Veteran caregivers gathered at the Northwest Louisiana Veterans Home in Bossier City, Louisiana, to pay tribute to four <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/?s=World+War+II-era+Veteran\">World War II-era<\/a> residents.<\/p>\n<p>All eyes were on Veterans Alfred Procell, 101; Albert Smith, 101; Billie Taylor, 100; and Robert \u201cBob\u201d Robertson, 100. Between them, the Veterans have 402 years of combined life experience to celebrate. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese Veterans are truly a living encyclopedia of history, wisdom and experience,\u201d said Kim Lane, associate director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/shreveport-health-care\/\">Overton Brooks VA Medical Center<\/a> in neighboring Shreveport, where many of the facility\u2019s residence receive their care.<\/p>\n<p>Each Veteran received a framed proclamation and coin signed by VA Secretary Doug Collins to celebrate their life achievements.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The honorees<\/h2>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Lane_r2-scaled-6.jpg\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Kim Lane, associate director at the Overton Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, shakes hands with World War II Veteran Albert Smith and presents a framed proclamation signed by VA Secretary Doug Collins.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Robertson, a Navy Veteran, spent time as an engineer aboard the vessel \u201cLanding Ship Medium 310\u201d in the Pacific during his service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the war hadn\u2019t ended when it did, I probably wouldn\u2019t be sitting here, had they not dropped the bomb on Japan,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n<p>He credits his longevity to never drinking or smoking and some fortunate genetics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy dad lived to 103,\u201d Robertson added. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Robertson, Smith and Procell each served in the Navy, while Taylor had a career in the Air Force.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re grateful for the time they have spent with us here at the Veterans Home,\u201d said Wesley Pepitone, administrator of the state-run Veterans home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Family members and Veteran caregivers gathered at the Northwest Louisiana Veterans Home in Bossier City, Louisiana, to pay tribute to four World War II-era residents. All eyes were on Veterans Alfred Procell, 101; Albert Smith, 101; Billie Taylor, 100; and Robert \u201cBob\u201d Robertson, 100. Between them, the Veterans have 402 years of combined life experience [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":479939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1267,990],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-479937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-visn-16","category-world-war-ii-veteran-centenarians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=479937"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":479946,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479937\/revisions\/479946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/479939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=479937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=479937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=479937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}