He went on to serve in the liberation of Paris, Battle of the Bulge, and supported Patton’s 3rdArmy. Harner would find himself storming Gold Beach on D-Day. I had just turned 17 and I had an extra year of postgraduate school to go, so I knew I wouldn’t be going in right away.”īut when his time came, he was ready to enlist, he said. All the guys who were 18 were ready to sign up and join. “We all listened on the radio to the president’s speech and discussed it. “I can remember the spot where I was walking when I heard that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,” he recalled in a Defense Media Activity interview earlier this year. 8, 1941, before a joint session of Congress on the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the day before. Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech on Dec. Harner remembers while in high school hearing President Franklin D. He entered the Army at Fort Dix, N.J., on Aphe was a technician, fifth grade. Harner was born in Pottstown, Penn., but he now lives in Landsdowne, Va., about 175 miles from Washington, D.C. Linc Harner poses for a photo during World War II. They’re generally in their 90s, and about 245 die each day, according to the VA.Īt 95, Army veteran Lincoln “Linc” Harner still remembers the war.
Reports from the Department of Veterans Affairs say about 240,300 World War II veterans are still alive in 2021.