When you’re on vacation and check into a hotel, you might not think the clerk has an interesting story to tell. You might not have read #ScaiaBlog.

We’ve covered my unsuccessful quest to find a World War II veteran who’s boring. Consider the accountant who hopped a freight train to find his base when he got lost in Morocco. Or the Navy lieutenant who thought the Army was doing a good job making a drill look real… until he learned they were being Pearl Harbored.

At the air show in Dallas, I met a 99 year old World War II veteran who turns 100 this weekend.

John Boswell said a lot of people enlisted after Pearl Harbor, so when he showed up, they took his name and sent him home. He was called to Camp Lejeune a couple months later.

They did get sent to combat. Boswell was a medic at D-Day. He was with another corpsman in the back of the ship. They carried a case of medical supplies so they could tend to service members when they got to shore.

Here’s why I suspect I wouldn’t have fit in storming the beaches of Normandy: I’d be the guy behind Boswell saying, “Hey, this package is heavy. Let’s just hunker down here a spell.”

After surviving D-Day, he got on a boat to … somewhere.

First, they stopped at Guadalcanal for some peace and quiet. That’s how I learned if you’re marooned on a Pacific island, you should not sleep under a coconut tree.

Then, because he was now well-rested after D-Day, Boswell continued on to Iwo Jima.

He was there when they raised the flag.

During the festival in Dallas, the Commemorative Air Force gave awards to Boswell and several other veterans of different wars. He didn’t want to spend much time talking about Iwo Jima, but he spent about 20 years in active duty and then as an instructor for the National Guard.

He then became a hotel manager.

Boswell didn’t envision a career in the military or being part of some of the seminal battles of World War II. He hopes his story can show kids they should be ready for anything.