Navy Veteran Surrounded By Friends, Family For His 100th Birthday Celebration

For some people, it was a day like any other, but for one man, it was one he'd been waiting for, "25 May 1924," said birthday boy Raymond de Yarmin. 

It was the day his birthday cake would earn one more number.

"Well according to the calendar I'll be 100," Yarmin said. 

Surrounded by family, Raymond shared some of his experiences from the past century, "too many memories."

They were memories that took him back to his time in the Navy.

"My first ship was a mine layer. It was a 1918 four-pipe destroyer. They took off one stack and put down mine tracks," Yarmin said. 

Ray served in the Navy for 34 years.

"I didn't have much choice. I graduated high school in 1942, and World War II was going on. I didn't want to be drafted so I volunteered to go in the Navy," he said. 

Yarmin fought in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

"Now I got out in 1946, but I got recalled because I was in the reserves during Korea and I just said, 'Oh to heck with it I'll just stay," said Yarmin. 

His son Tom traveled in from South Dakota to celebrate his dad.

"It's amazing that a person can go through everything in life that he went through and gone through, that he still has the brain when he talks about stories of stuff that happened years ago," he said.

As Ray became the newest member of the Centenarians of Oklahoma, "Golden Okie, golden Okie, well I'll be darned," he said as he received his certificate, he only asked for one other thing on his special day; "Another day. Good lord willing and the creek don't rise, I'd like another day," Ray said. 

Ray said some of his keys to his long life have been taking care of his health, being kind to others, and always remembering to laugh.