{"id":217192,"date":"2026-06-12T05:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T05:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217192\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T05:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T05:54:13","slug":"101-year-old-pennsylvania-wwii-hero-becomes-belgian-knight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217192\/","title":{"rendered":"101-year-old Pennsylvania WWII hero becomes Belgian knight"},"content":{"rendered":"

CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) \u2014 Belgium honored a 101-year-old World War II veteran with the country\u2019s highest honor.<\/p>\n

Truman Christian, a Pennsylvania native, served as a machine gunner with the 106th Infantry Division in the Battle of the Bulge. He saw combat in St. Vith in Belgium.<\/p>\n

\"Belgium\u2019s<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s Consul General Filip Vanden Bulcke presents Truman Christian with the Order of Leopold on Wednesday, June 11, 2026, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\"Belgium\u2019s<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s Consul General Filip Vanden Bulcke presents Truman Christian with the Order of Leopold on Wednesday, June 11, 2026, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Tyler Boland, who documents the lives of WWII veterans, helped arrange with the consulate.<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s Consul General Filip Vanden Bulcke presented Christian with the Order of Leopold, an order of knighthood, on Wednesday in Lower Allen Township.<\/p>\n

Tyler Boland, about 80 years Christian\u2019s junior, made the presentation possible after learning that Belgium awards the honor to Allied soldiers who fought to free the country.<\/p>\n

Boland travels the country interviewing WWII veterans as part of his \u201cKeeping History Alive\u201d<\/a> project.<\/p>\n

Midstate veteran-owned bakery earns award from U.S. Small Business Administration <\/a><\/p>\n

Fewer than 50,000 of the 16.4 million Americans who served in World War II are still alive. Christian shared his secret to longevity when local leaders came together for his 100th birthday<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of them, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d he said. \u201cKeep active, and I think that\u2019s very important. You\u2019ve got to maybe inherit a little DNA or something, but you\u2019ve got to take care of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) \u2014 Belgium honored a 101-year-old World War II veteran with the country\u2019s highest honor.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[94976,73158,3680,94973,94975,28,30,29,94972,94974],"class_list":["post-217192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-106th-infantry-division","tag-belgium","tag-cumberland-county","tag-filip-vanden-bulcke","tag-order-of-leopold","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-truman-christian","tag-tyler-boland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}