Welcome back to the untold story, everyone, and a very happy Fourth of July.

In honor of America's birthday, I'm revisiting my discussion with World War II veteran

Don Thompson and his wife,

Marion Dude Thompson, as they discuss Don's service to this great nation. So there are fewer

and fewer World War II veterans who are with us to share their stories, but a marine radio

telephone operator from Washington, who took part in five

assault landings in the Pacific Theater, is getting ready to celebrate his 100th birthday.

Private First Class Don Thompson reaches that milestone on February 24th, some 80 years after he

enlisted in 1943. He joined after the attack on Pearl Harbor,

which happened when he was an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Washington. His time in the

Marines is only part of his family's long legacy of military service, which stretches back as far as the Civil War.

I'm honored to be joined by Don Thompson just days before his birthday, along with his wife,

Marianne, who is known as Judy. Welcome, Don and Judy. Great to have you with us today.

Thank you. Glad to be here. Oh, we're glad to have you. I hope everybody can see you because you

guys are a beautiful couple and we want to talk a little bit about the story of how you met.

So, Don, maybe you could start with that part of the story for us. Well, I met duty at the

Feltz Field Airport because they didn't have the big one here then

and asked her to come up and spend New Year's with us and she flew into the Feltz Field on the December 30th

so we could have New Year's the next day.

That's the end of the story though.

When I first met her at the Feltz Field, I turned around and I thought,

my God, this is the most beautiful lady I've ever seen in my life.

...