PEORIA ( 25News Now ) - With fewer than 50,000 World War II veterans still alive in the U.S. today, the team at Bickford House in Peoria held an open house and celebration for the community to meet one of their residents, 103-year-old World War II veteran Carl Johnson.

Johnson was drafted into the Army in 1942 when he was 20-years old.

After nearly two years stateside, he was sent overseas, landing on the west end of Omaha Beach.

Because he spoke German, Johnson was assigned to help run a prisoner-of-war camp on the Cherbourg Peninsula in France, where he spent his days helping prisoners understand what would happen next.

Johnson said many of the German and American soldiers he encountered were tired of fighting and simply wanted to go home to their families and regular life.

“There

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