85-year-old WWII vet gets high school diploma

85-year-old WWII vet living in Tennessee gets diploma from Ohio high school

12/22/2012

HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) — An 85-year-old Tennessee man who grew up in Ohio has finally gotten a high school diploma.

The Pulse-Journal reports (http://bit.ly/WoBDsB) that 85-year-old Louis Graham left Hamilton High School north of Cincinnati in 1944, when he was 17, without graduating to join the U.S. Navy.

His daughter says Graham served two years in the South Pacific during WWII and took part in the liberation of the Philippines and the invasion of Okinawa. He later joined the U.S. Army and served during the Korean War.

Earlier this month, Graham was awarded a diploma from Lakota West High School, which now serves the then-rural area where Graham grew up.

Graham now lives in Watertown, Tenn., east of Nashville, with his wife of 51 years. They have four children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.