RINGGOLD, Ga. — Earl Lamar Beaird lives in Ringgold. He celebrated his 100th birthday on Saturday, and though he enlisted when he was 16, he still remembers what it was like to serve the U.S. Navy as a torpedo man all those years ago.
“This country meant more to me than anything,” says Beaird, “and I was willing to fight for it at any cost.
Beaird trained in the Great Lakes, Illinois and Providence, Rhode Island before being deployed to the Philippines, Guam and Japan. He fought in seven significant battles against the Japanese.
He says his biggest challenge during the war was locating Japan’s suicide planes…