{"id":15146,"date":"2023-12-19T08:48:29","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T13:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=15146"},"modified":"2023-12-19T10:07:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T15:07:54","slug":"103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night.html","title":{"rendered":"103-Year-Old WWII Veteran Shares Advice For Young People: &#8216;Pray Every Night&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_15182\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15182\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/12\/103-yo-vet_01_credit-John-Avolicino-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15182\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/12\/103-yo-vet_01_credit-John-Avolicino-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15182\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Avolicino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A California WWII veteran who ran the Nuremberg Opera House, which welcomed the likes of Bob Hope and Mickey Rooney, recently turned 103. Now, he\u2019s sharing his tips for a fulfilling life, which include good wine, good food, and a wonderful wife. Sam Avolicino told Fox News Digital, \u201cI\u2019m Italian, so pasta is the first thing that comes to my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He continued, \u201cI enjoyed my mother\u2019s food for so long. As a kid, I grew up with good homemade pasta, and the Italian custom was that you drank a little wine with water because it\u2019s good for the blood. So maybe that\u2019s an excuse, but it\u2019s okay.\u201d Avolicino also credits his \u201cwonderful wife,\u201d Agnes, to whom he\u2019s been married for nearly 72 years, for his adventurous and long life. He said, \u201cThe greatest thing in my life is that I was able to be married for 72 years with my same wife.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Born in Santa Maria in the Calabria region of southern Italy in 1920, Avolicino immigrated to the United States via Ellis Island when he was three months old. He and his mother landed in New York and took a train to Oakland, California, where they joined his father and other family members already living there. He grew up in the Bay Area and has lived there for over 100 years. Avolicino said that during the war, he volunteered in\u00a0the Army Air Force. He was a physical training instructor and trained troops while stationed in St. Petersburg, Florida.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px; min-width: 325px;\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@hardcoreitalians\/video\/7307100594773298475\" data-video-id=\"7307100594773298475\">\n<section><a title=\"@hardcoreitalians\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@hardcoreitalians?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@hardcoreitalians<\/a>World War II Veteran Sam Avolicino, who just turned 103, shared his keys to a long and happy life. \u2764\ufe0f (? via Today Show)<a title=\"\u266c original sound - HardcoreItalians\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/music\/original-sound-7307100674213366570?refer=embed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u266c original sound &#8211; HardcoreItalians<\/a><\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He said, \u201cMy CO wanted to find a person that could lead a yell. Every day, we had training, and we had drills. And I taught them some yells and some songs and things like that.\u201d After attending the School for Physical Training in Miami, Avolicino was transferred to Fresno, California, then Glendale, California, and finally, Fort Dix, where he prepared to go overseas. He said, \u201cI landed in France one day before the war was over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Avolicino continued, \u201cSo I got reassigned to special services, and my CEO assigned me to the Nuremberg (N\u00fcrnberg) Opera House to entertain the troops while we waited to be shipped home.\u201d During his time at the opera house in Germany, which had been taken over by the Americas by the end of the war, Avolicino helped welcome American entertainers like Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Mickey Rooney\u00a0and the Rockettes, all of whom flew across the globe to perform for the troops. Avolicino even arranged for the first Christmas mass in the opera house, which took place in 1945, as many of the troops were still waiting to go home.<\/p>\n<p>Avolicino\u2019s advice for younger generations is to focus on family and faith. He said, \u201cI recommend all children\u00a0pick up on God,\u00a0start to believe in the hereafter and go to church. Pray every night. God\u2019s been the most important person in my life. Respect your parents and listen to your parents. Don\u2019t let outside influences get to you, which is very difficult today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A California WWII veteran who ran the Nuremberg Opera House, which welcomed the likes of Bob Hope and Mickey Rooney, recently turned 103. Now, he\u2019s sharing his tips for a fulfilling life, which include good wine, good food, and a wonderful wife. Sam Avolicino told Fox News Digital, \u201cI\u2019m Italian, so pasta is the first&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":15182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[741,4,12],"tags":[1548,956],"class_list":["post-15146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","category-inspiring-messages","category-inspiring-people","tag-inspiring-messages","tag-inspiring-people"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>103-Year-Old WWII Veteran Shares Advice For Young People: &#039;Pray Every Night&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sam Avolicino recently turned 103 and he&#039;s sharing his incredible life story as well as some advice for the younger generation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"103-Year-Old WWII Veteran Shares Advice For Young People: &#039;Pray Every Night&#039;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sam Avolicino recently turned 103 and he&#039;s sharing his incredible life story as well as some advice for the younger generation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-19T13:48:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-19T15:07:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/12\/103-yo-vet_01_credit-John-Avolicino-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauren McKeithen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"103-Year-Old WWII Veteran Shares Advice For Young People: 'Pray Every Night'","description":"Sam Avolicino recently turned 103 and he's sharing his incredible life story as well as some advice for the younger generation.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"103-Year-Old WWII Veteran Shares Advice For Young People: 'Pray Every Night'","og_description":"Sam Avolicino recently turned 103 and he's sharing his incredible life story as well as some advice for the younger generation.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night.html","og_site_name":"Inspiration Report","article_published_time":"2023-12-19T13:48:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-12-19T15:07:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/12\/103-yo-vet_01_credit-John-Avolicino-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lauren McKeithen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night.html","name":"103-Year-Old WWII Veteran Shares Advice For Young People: 'Pray Every Night'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/12\/103-yo-vet_01_credit-John-Avolicino-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2023-12-19T13:48:29+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-19T15:07:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/67183b7ec4ffc995620174c78f9cc68a"},"description":"Sam Avolicino recently turned 103 and he's sharing his incredible life story as well as some advice for the younger generation.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/12\/103-yo-vet_01_credit-John-Avolicino-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/12\/103-yo-vet_01_credit-John-Avolicino-scaled.jpg","width":768,"height":576,"caption":"John Avolicino"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/12\/103-year-old-wwii-veteran-shares-advice-for-young-people-pray-every-night.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"103-Year-Old WWII Veteran Shares Advice For Young People: &#8216;Pray Every Night&#8217;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/","name":"Inspiration Report","description":"Inspiration News, Life Advice and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/67183b7ec4ffc995620174c78f9cc68a","name":"lmckeithen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/113\/113fb9cc9b1ebdaacbc1f17d658ad52ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/113\/113fb9cc9b1ebdaacbc1f17d658ad52ex96.jpg","caption":"lmckeithen"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/author\/lmckeithen"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15146"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15185,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15146\/revisions\/15185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}