{"id":30047,"date":"2025-11-10T13:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T13:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/30047\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T13:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T13:38:10","slug":"at-99-years-old-u-s-marine-corps-veteran-honors-fellow-wwii-soldiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/30047\/","title":{"rendered":"At 99 years old, U.S. Marine Corps veteran honors fellow WWII soldiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, Nov. 10, 2025, marks the 250th birthday of the United States Marine Corps<\/a>, founded in Philadelphia. On this week’s Spreading the Love, CBS Philadelphia’s Wakisha Bailey sat down with Private First Class Michael Grieco Sr., a 99-year-old World War II Marine Corps veteran whose story honors the courage and sacrifice of a generation.<\/p>\n

Private Grieco enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1943 when he was just 17 years old.<\/p>\n

Looking back, Grieco reflected on just how young they all were.<\/p>\n

“Later on in life, I realized we were only teenagers \u2014 17, 18, 19-year-old kids,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/p>\n

U.S. Marine Corps veteran Private First Class Michael Grieco Sr.<\/p>\n

CBS Philadelphia<\/p>\n

As a rifleman in the Pacific, Grieco served in some of the war’s toughest battles \u2014 Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa.<\/p>\n

At Saipan, he remembered both the chaos and courage of combat.<\/p>\n

“They had a banzai attack,” Grieco said. “There must have been a hundred enemy soldiers lying all over the place.”<\/p>\n

After regrouping, his unit moved on to Tinian, wading through feet of water, despite one big problem.<\/p>\n

“I had water up to my chest \u2014 I can’t swim,” he laughed.<\/p>\n

Some called it an “easy campaign,” but Grieco said there was nothing easy about it.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/p>\n

U.S. Marine Corps veteran Private First Class Michael Grieco Sr.<\/p>\n

CBS Philadelphia<\/p>\n

“They said it only lasted 10 days. Ask those 300 Marines who were killed, plus the ones who were wounded.”<\/p>\n

Then came Okinawa \u2014 the final and bloodiest battle of the Pacific War.<\/p>\n

“Okinawa was something else,” Grieco said quietly.<\/p>\n

Grieco was discharged in 1946, but his Marine spirit never left him. Nearly 80 years later, he still honors the men who fought beside him.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/p>\n

U.S. Marine Corps veteran Private First Class Michael Grieco Sr.<\/p>\n

CBS Philadelphia<\/p>\n

“Semper Fi means you’re friends forever,” he said. “That’s why every year Marines cut the birthday cake and share it with the oldest and youngest Marine.”<\/p>\n

At 99 years old, Private Grieco continues to Spread the Love \u2014 traveling with Forever Young Veterans<\/a> and being recognized by the Philadelphia Phillies as a hometown hero.<\/p>\n

On this milestone Marine Corps birthday, CBS Philadelphia salutes Private First Class Michael Grieco Sr. \u2014 and every Marine who continues to live by the motto: Semper Fidelis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monday, Nov. 10, 2025, marks the 250th birthday of the United States Marine Corps, founded in Philadelphia. On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[28,69,71,70,7523,196,15041,16488],"class_list":["post-30047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-spreading-the-love","tag-united-states-marine-corps","tag-veterans-day","tag-world-war-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30047","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=30047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}