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MIDDLETOWN — Willis "Bud" LeForce looked up to his older brother, Lawrence.

So when Lawrence enlisted in the U.S. Army in the late 1930s — and after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 — Bud wanted to follow his brother, wanted to fight for his country, wanted to make sure his country remained free.

Only one problem: Bud, then 19, wasn't old enough to enlist. So he lied to his father about the document and asked for his signature that made him eligible for the military.

Sixty-seven years later, Bud LeForce, now 86 and living in Middletown, still hasn't forgiven himself for being untruthful to his father.

"The way I saw it, it was the only way I could get in," LeForce said. "That was the only time I lied to daddy."

That's when LeForce, blind in one eye and losing his sight in the other, started weeping. The man who risked his life in World War II, worked for 33 years at Armco Steel, was overcome with emotion.

"It's hard on him," said Debra Green, one of his two children.

LeForce, the youngest of 11 children, is the only living child of Elijah and Mary Virginia LeForce of Corbin, Ky.

His brother, Lawrence, died six years ago, and today — July 4th — a letter penned in patriotism that Lawrence wrote Bud is cherished in the LeForce home.

Bud kept the handwritten letter dated Monday, July 22, 1941, and after he returned from the war, he stored it — along with dog tags, love letters, his discharge papers — in an Army ammunition box.

"It's some letter," Green said. "It's incredible. You can tell he has a love God, love of family and love of country. It makes you real proud to be part of this family."

On one page, Lawrence wrote: "So since we have so very much in common for which we can be proud, let's keep our chin up, our eyes open, our feet standing solid and most of all, a smile on our face because we have a country that anyone would be proud to call home."

When asked about today's soldiers, those risking their lives in Iraq, LeForce's emotions returned.

More memories.

More tears.

"Our boys are doing a good job," he said. "I love them to pieces. If I could, I'd be over there with them. I love a good fight — one I could win."

LeForce served in the Army for two years, then moved to Middletown to find work. He also met the former Demarias "Boots" Hawkins.

At the time, she said, eligible bachelors were scarce so she "grabbed her one."

"I had to fight my girlfriends for him," she said with a smile. "He had the prettiest black hair."

"I still do," said LeForce, his hair now gray.

Bud and Boots, who had completed her junior year at Middletown High School, took a pre-wedding blood test, and not wanting to wait three days for the results, drove over the Ohio River and married in Newport, Ky.

"I fell for him," she said.

"That cost me a lot of money," he said.

They have two children, Dan, 59, and Debra, 56, one grandchild and two great-grandchildren. In September, Bud and Boots will celebrate their 62nd wedding anniversary.

"Our lives," Boots said, "have been good."

Bud, nearly asleep, just smiled. No words were needed.