PALM HARBOR, Fla.  — Enlisting in the military during World War II was a family affair for Palm Harbor’s Joseph Greco and his six brothers. All of them served in different branches. 

“In the Army, I was an escort guard.” Greco says, “I went to the front lines. We had a makeshift stockade with razor-blade barbwire, and they used to keep the prisoners in there.”

This Independence Day is special for Greco, who later this month will turn 100 years old.

The former Army private says things weren’t as certain back then as it seems now.

“Some of them didn’t know what it was all about,” Greco says. “Some of them didn’t know if we were doing the right thing or the wrong thing. I learned along the way. I learned more and more. I thought we did a pretty good job.”

His family has no doubt. 

“It makes us very proud,” daughter Cheryl Corrente says, “my son, my husband and I, that my dad, especially, served the way he did, and then all my uncles served at the same time and thank God they all came home safe and sound.”

Now. Greco is just fighting Father Time.

“It’s rotten!” Greco says jokingly about his upcoming 100^th birthday. “In the service, I didn’t have no pains or nothing. I’m ready to go, man!”

He does love watching the Tampa Bay Lightning, though. 

“I stayed up late to watch the game until the end of it,” Greco says. “I had tears coming out of my eyes.”

Life has been good to Joe and his wife of 68 years. The Palm Harbor couple says he humbly hopes today’s generation will remember what the World War II veterans accomplished so long ago. 

“I want them to know that we were doing the best thing for the country that we could’ve done," Greco says. “It was a great experience for me, and I thought we were doing the right thing.”