It is uncommon to meet a 100-year-old World War II veteran. But if and when you do, you might recognize common courage.

I found one in 2014 in a barber shop in Williamsburg. That veteran was Jack Ford and while he wasn’t 100 years old at the time, he is now. Ford will celebrate his 100th birthday on Friday.

In Jack Ford, I found common courage in an uncommon man.

He deserves all the cake and ice cream, all the hugs and kisses, and the applause, not only from his family, but from all of America. He stands still as a proud veteran of that Greatest Generation, whose stalwart men were afraid, yes, but determined and willing to stand up and charge ashore, to crawl through sand and dodge mortar rounds, to fling grenades into pile boxes, and when winter approached to wrap their boots with additional towels and eat rations from a frozen can.

While I met him in Larry’s Barber Shop in 2014 and wanted to write something about him, Jack told me to “find someone else to write about, someone more deserving. I was just a common soldier.” Yes, Jack, you were a common soldier with that uncommon courage that set you and your fellow veterans of that terrible war aside. A courage that made you all so special and precious to us.

Jack, you and your brother veterans carried the burden of battle, dug foxholes, fired the shots, lugged the BARs and mortar tubes, froze your feet (many losing toes) and endured the frightening and murderous barrages of the German 88s. Just who is more deserving than you Jack, a common soldier with uncommon courage and a willingness and patriotic spirit inherited from that extraordinary and unexplainable insistence that, “like your fathers and your father before,” will persist to the finish line, pay any price and complete the job of preserving and protecting this noble nation.

Ford’s division, “the Fighting 69th,” went over to the attack on Feb. 27, 1945. They crossed the Rhine into Germany and fought through the fortresses along that formidable border and finished the job but two months later. How in heavens’ name is that the work of a common soldier?

So when and if you next visit the World War II monument on the National Mall, or walk the rows of graves at Arlington Cemetery, or ponder at the uniforms and material at the national World War II museums, remember those magnificent edifices or memorials belong to Ford and his battle-brothers — the riflemen, bomber pilots, tail-gunners, mortar platoon sergeants, supply clerks, Marines, Navy corpsmen, truck drivers, merchant marines and swabbies of that great war. You may even meet one or two, and that will be a rare and precious treat, because their ilk will be hard to replace and their courage difficult to emulate.

Jack Ford’s story continues at his home in Norge this week as his family gathers to celebrate.

Happy birthday, Jack, and thank you for your uncommon courage, for your stellar stance in support of a steel-strengthened insistence that we as Americans will still pay any price for love of our God and our country.

Bill Karabinos is a veteran of the Vietnam War and was with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. He lives in Toano.

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