{"id":43317,"date":"2025-11-12T03:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T03:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/43317\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T03:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T03:54:09","slug":"brooksy-at-100-a-spunky-sailors-long-voyage-from-war-to-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/43317\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooksy at 100: A spunky sailor\u2019s long voyage from War to Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Navy <\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. – Donald Brooks\u2014known to friends and family as Brooksy\u2014joined the Navy at the young age of 17.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Looking back over eight decades, he marvels at how vastly different military life was, joking that he even had to “buy your gear and I slept in a hammock for two weeks.”<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

His duty was on the high seas of the Pacific aboard an LCS, where he served as a gunner. His primary mission was to protect US carriers and fighter planes, often providing cover for soldiers as they headed to shore on remote islands. This job was far from tranquil.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Brooks vividly recounts one furious firefight: “We just filled the sky with ammo and hoped they ran into it.” The intensity was so great that his back gang had to constantly replace his weapon. “Because once we started firing it was constant,” he recalls.<\/p>\n

READ: Habitat for Humanity of Tampa Bay Hillsborough honors local veterans with special home projects<\/a><\/p>\n

Big picture view:<\/p>\n

The experience left indelible marks. Standing watch, he remembers praying just “to live to be 21.” But the worst memories are those of the men who never made it: “There were guys that never made the beach, a lot of them, drowned because they had too much weight. Guns and all their weight, uniforms wet, a lot of guys drowned.” He notes, “It was different, some nights you couldn’t eat even if you could.”<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Yet, his snapshots of war aren’t all dark. Brooks prizes a photo of a Japanese mother and her daughter whom his crew befriended and fed\u2014a reminder of the innocents caught up in the conflict.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

He also fondly remembers his downtime, referring to pages in his album filled with photos of lady acquaintances, proudly declaring, “I had my day in the sun, haha!”<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

As Brooksy prepares to turn 100 on November 19th, he\u2019s as spunky as ever, seeming ready for whatever adventures lie ahead.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE:>>> Follow FOX 13 on YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13’s Corey Beckman.<\/p>\n

Veterans<\/a>Heartwarming News<\/a>Winter Haven<\/a>Polk County<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – Donald Brooks\u2014known to friends and family as Brooksy\u2014joined the Navy at the young age of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,6043,2583,115,7153,135,137,136,628,3393,21956],"class_list":{"0":"post-43317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-fl","9":"tag-heartwarming","10":"tag-military","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-polk","13":"tag-tampa","14":"tag-tampa-headlines","15":"tag-tampa-news","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-veterans","18":"tag-winter-haven"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}