WWII Veteran Celebrates 92nd Birthday

This afternoon the American Legion Post 119 in Gulfport was full of laughter and love as family and friends gathered to celebrate the life of an extraordinary individual.
Once upon a time, WWII Veteran Jim Highton served his country for 20 years. Now, his family and friends are celebrating his 92nd birthday and a life well lived.
Highton joined the Navy when he was 16 and he never looked back. “I tell you what, I loved the military. I’d do it all over again. It was beautiful.”
Highton says his favorite military memory was being able to bring the comfort of home to his fellow soldiers through baking. “We found two 55 gallon drums on the island and we made an oven. Boy, the first time I put bread in there and put the cover over, man when I opened that I said ‘Thank you Lord.’ There was beautiful bread. Now to conclude the story, we all went up for promotion on Kwajalein, we’re all standing in line and we all go in one at a time to get promoted. It comes to my time, I walk in, reported, and he says ‘I think I recognize you. Are you that baker that bakes bread in those two 55 gallon drums? I said ‘yes sir.’ And he said ‘make an about face, you’ve been promoted.’”
In the end, Highton says it’s not the memories, but the people in them that have made his life so special.