VIDEO: 103-year-old World War II vet gets flooded with birthday cards

WILLIS, Va. (WSLS) – A Virginia man is turning 103 years old, and hundreds of people across the nation are sharing in the celebration by sending the World War II veteran birthday cards.

Orland Phillips is turning an age not many expect to see.

To celebrate, Phillips’ daughter, Mary Hodge, posted on social media asking the community to send him birthday cards.

“We have done it a couple years before and had a pretty good response, but this year we decided 103 would be a really good idea to get 103 cards,” she said.

A social media post asking for cards was shared over 500 times. Those 103 cards quickly grew to over 1,000.

“I don’t know what to think about all that many cards,” Phillips said. “I have been working on reading them. I read every one of them.”

The Army veteran served as a machinist in the Second World War, on the Pacific front. A lot of his birthday cards say, “Wishing you all the best, and thank you for your service.”

“After this has happened, anytime we see anybody that is older, we will definitely send them a card,” Hodge said. “We have seen requests before and this means so much that we will definitely do that in the future.”

Phillips now has homemade cards from local second-graders

“It is a good pastime, I am glad to see them,” he said.

He receives a stack of cards each day and pays attention to where they all come from. So far, he has cards from 45 different states.

His family has a book cataloging who sent a card and from where.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Phillips said to everyone who sent him a card.

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