Donald "Buddy" Clemente, 98, said he initially didn't want to go to New Orleans to preserve his service stories in a museum. But the World War II U.S. Navy veteran then thought about his great-grandsons Hayden and Alex Fritz.

“I have great-grandsons now,” he said. “One’s 17 and one’s 14, and I figured they will be having kids, and if they’re ever in New Orleans, they can go in the museum and see the setup.”

Clemente was invited to travel to the National WWII Museum, which has an oral history program for surviving veterans to tell their own war stories.

Clemente said he was treated like a celebrity in New Orleans. He and his son Paul Clemente arrived Oct. 28 to applause from museum staff. The Victory Belles, a vocal trio of women who perform music of the 1940s, sang to him.

Joey Balfour

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