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Most military vets who ever served during a war have their own wartime
memories. Lacey’s nightmare happened when he and one other sailor were
pulled from their troop to join some Marines working on a fighter plane.
A major explosion sent him rushing to the runway where the plane with
members of his squadron had exploded. “My job was picking up limbs and
body parts of sailors I knew.”
Lacey’s eighteen months in the Pacific were challenging. Along with war,
the men experienced a scarcity of food. No supply ships could come to them,
so the only fresh meat they had were fish that they could catch.
He will always remember his happiest memory – seeing the Golden
Gate Bridge on his safe return home. “The GI Bill was the best thing
our government ever did for vets,” Lacey asserted. During his
military time, Lacey had decided he wouldn’t go back to his
carpentry job; he would go to college. He earned a
mechanical engineering degree from University of Kansas.
He and his wife and two sons moved to several states with
his work, but West Virginia was his retirement home for
he and his wife.
Ten years ago, his son Rick told his dad, “You’re getting
old! You and Mom need to move closer.” Brandon is now
home where Lacey lives alone after his wife of seventy-five
years passed in 2018.
His 100th birthday was celebrated with a special flag and
certificate presentation by Representative Michael Guest. A family
reunion in Ogden, Utah, with his two sisters and 150 relatives, were also
part of his 100th celebration.
This military veteran should also earn recognition for his stamina and sharp
mind. He never naps and wakes at six each morning. Then he hoists Ole Glory
high on its flagpole and retires at 10pm after taking down his flag. His mornings
follow a schedule of light exercises and some time on his treadmill. He
watches westerns on TV, “fools around” on his computer and enjoys reading.
His favorite pastime is playing golf with his friends at Bay Pointe – a
standing appointment for most weekdays to which he drives himself. His last
driver’s license is good to age 106. Vitamins for his eyes are his primary medicine,
and his favorite food is navy beans and cornbread which he eats for breakfast.
I guess you could call it the breakfast of champions and centenarian
patriotic veterans.
86 • NOVEMBER 2022