WHITE-WILLIAM

Excerpts from newspaper articles published in early 2020:

“OPERATION  VALENTINE”

Major William “Bill” White, at the age of 104, remains every inch the U.S. Marine he was in World War II.  In the battle for Iwo Jima, a grenade exploded beside him.  “It proceeded to blow the hell out of me,” he said, and added that although he contested the decision, he was removed from the battle because of his injuries.  Bill had a long and illustrious career as a Marine.  After retiring, he worked for 12-years with the Huntington Beach Police Department in California, and was a volunteer for 30 years with the Huntington Beach Search and Rescue Explorer Post 563.  He now resides in an assisted living home in Stockton, California, where he says, “I like to make myself available for anything anyone wants me to do.  I don’t like to sit and twiddle my thumbs.  I like to stay busy.”  One of his activities is scrapbooking which he started doing in 1934 when he started recruit training and began saving everything he could get his hands on.  “I just had a desire to keep a record of the things I had done,” Bill says.  “My mother saved papers, letters and other records, so I guess I took after her.

A fellow resident at his assisted living home, knowing of Bill’s scrapbook activities, suggested it would be fun for him to receive one-hundred four Valentine's Day cards from the public to put in a scrapbook. “So, I put the word out, thinking we might get about 100 of them. Boy did we — and more,” he says.  To everyone’s surprise, the resident’s social medial post garnered widespread attention online and spread to local and national news outlets.  Bill was surprised by the outpouring of love as Operation Valentine, as it was called, started bringing hundreds of cards, notes, gifts and candy from people all across the globe.  Mail was received from New Zealand, Australia, Russia, Guam, a special note from President Trump, and a NASA delivered photo and personalized plaque.  The executive director of the assisted living home said, “Bill received so many valentine cards that we covered the walls with them, put them in the library, the living room, the media room, the activity room, and even an empty apartment.”

In addition to mail, representatives of the Huntington Beach Police Department, accompanied by a group of active duty and reserve Marines, visited Bill on Valentine’s Day 2020 to personally congratulate him for possibly being the oldest living Marine survivor of World War II.  By Valentine Day 2020, Bill’s flood of mail exceeded over 300,000 Valentine’s Day cards.  He proudly exhibited one card which he said was one of his favorite saying, “It’s very short.  But it just says, ‘You’ve stolen the hearts of America.’”  When asked what his secret to longevity is, Bill answered, “Just keep breathing.”

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)