![]() ![]() Photo courtesy of TravlrĪfter the reinstatement of the draft in 1940 (the only two previous times of mandatory conscription being World War I and the Civil War), around 10 million men were drafted into the war effort. By 2025, that number will be under 100,000. ![]() According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, for every 16 Americans who served in the war, only one is still alive 2015 is projected to be the first year that the population of World War II veterans drops below one million. James, a hamlet in Long Island’s Suffolk County. “While we were waiting for the plane to be fixed, the war ended.”Įrcolano is one of four surviving World War II veterans at his local VFW post in St. We had engine trouble and turned back,” says Ercolano, who spent six months in the mainland United States preparing to be deployed to Japan. He has spinal stenosis, a pacemaker in his chest, and periodic difficulty breathing due to problems with his lungs. The cane doesn’t assist him in nursing an old war wound, it’s a simple sign of old age. With his hat and cane, it’s hard to imagine him in the cockpit of a fighter plane, dodging German bullets - and, in fact, he didn’t. Army Air Corps WWII Flyboy” stitched in yellow across the front. Over wispy gray hair, he wears a blue ballcap with the words “U.S. At home in Long Island, Dominic Ercolano, age 89, sits in a plush beige rocking recliner. It’s a bright Sunday afternoon in August. ![]()
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