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A 98-year-old Second World War veteran took to the stage at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday and declared that if Donald Trump were president, he’d go back and re-enlist in the United States military.
William Pekrul, a father to 11 children and “proud” war veteran, said he fought in the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive campaign on the western front during the Second World War between 1944 and 1945.
During the short speech, the Milwaukee veteran declared that if Trump was back in as commander-in-chief of the US Army and Navy, a title that the US president automatically holds, he would “go back and re-enlist today.”
Pekrul’s assertion sent the crowd into a frenzy of applause, cheers and whistles from the crowd.
“I would storm whatever beach my country needs me to,” he added.
During his time serving during the Second World War, Pekrul said he “witnessed the horror of the Nazi’s war camps,” and after Hitler was dead and the Nazis were defeated, “not many of came home, I still miss a lot of my friends on that beach.”
“There aren’t many of us left today, but for those of us who are here, America is still worth fighting for,” he continued.
“It hurts my heart to see what our current president and vice-president have done to the country I love so well,” adding that they have been “humiliated” in Afghanistan, “pushed around” in China, and have let “terrorists run wild in the Middle East.”
He added that the government has also “let our own Southern border get overrun,” which was returned with applause.
“When somebody comes for me or my home, you dig in your boots in the ground and never look back; that’s the attitude that saved the free world.”
The Wisconsinite received a roaring applause throughout his speech from the RNC audience, at one point he paused so the crowd could chant “USA” and pump their fists to celebrate his patriotic sentiments about the country.
Pekrul had signed up for the US Army at Boys Tech High School and was assigned to the 29th and the 75th Infantry. During his time serving, he spent 42 days, the longest time he ever spent, in combat, in Normandy in 1944, the veteran said in an interview with the War Memorial Center in 2020.
Wednesday also saw Trump’s new running mate JD Vance closing out the third night of the RNC with his first speech as the GOP’s vice-presidential nominee.
Vance laid into President Joe Biden by declaring: “For half a century, he’s been a champion of every single policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”
Chants of “Joe must go!’ rang out throughout the convention center during his speech.
Trump will deliver a closing address of the RNC on Thursday.
