Although the math adds up exactly as you’d expect it to, it can be difficult to wrap your brain around exactly what it means when a man like Edward Boudreau tells you he signed up for the United States Navy immediately in the wake of Pearl Harbor as a 17-year-old kid.

Boudreau, a 99-year-old native of Sanford, Maine, was living in Portland at the time of the attack. He recalled his visceral emotions that took hold in the days immediately following the Japanese sucker punch on the Hawaiian naval base on that infamous day, Dec. 7, 1941, which triggered the United States’ direct involvement in World War II and would send millions of young men like him to war.

“I was angry about what the Japanese had done at Pearl Harbor,” he said when asked what made him volunteer to sign up for service at such a young age. “I don’t think it was courage, I just think it was a desire to get even.”

Boudreau enlisted with the Navy, and would go onto become a deep-sea water demolitions expert, later famously coined the “Frogmen”. He served in the South Pacific aboard multiple different vessels, including two destroyers, the USS Powell and USS New Jersey.

“I was a gunner’s mate. Involved in gunnery all the time,” he said. “I never worked on the large ones, the 16-inchers. But anything down from the 16-inch, I had a part on one time or another.”

Now living in a Riverside condo at the Seaview at Crescent Park complex, Boudreau was honored on June 26 with a visit to his home by the “We Honor Veterans” program, organized by Visiting Home & Hospice. Part of a larger network of veterans remembrance programs under the same name, which grew out of a collaboration with the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the Department of Veterans Affairs, “We Honor Veterans” seeks to find aging veterans throughout the country in order to give them proper recognition and appreciation for their service and sacrifices.

The visit also featured representatives from Mayor Bob DaSilva’s office, who provided him with a certificate from the mayor, along with local news media and members of Boudreau’s family; including his wife of half a century, Aileen, his son, Joshua, and his grandson, Lukas.

Major Michael Martin, of the United States Air National Guard, presented Boudreau with a special commemorative pin and saluted him. Joy Benson, of the We Honor Veterans program, provided him with a handmade blanket from program volunteers.

“I’d just like to thank you for your service to our nation and thank you for your sacrifices as well as your family's sacrifice while in the Navy,” Martin said. “And thank you for your willingness to serve our country. You endured hardships as did your family and you were willing to risk your life to maintain our freedom that we have today.”

Boudreau, notably, summoned the strength to stand at attention during the recognition and continued to stand throughout a majority of the ceremony and conversation following.

Although Boudreau was a man of few words during the ceremony, his pride for his service still showed through. After the war, he said he worked a few different jobs before settling into a 22-year career as an administrator for Rhode Island Hospital, where he would retire as a Vice President.

Asked if he remembered what the food was like aboard Navy vessels during the war, he smiled before remembering a tidbit about the chocolate bars they would get in their rations.

“I remember the Hershey’s bars were so hard you had to gnaw on them like a squirrel,” he said.

And when asked what advice he would give to young people who might hope to one day make it to be nearly 100 years old (he will celebrate his centennial on March 27, 2026) — despite going through a world-changing war — he was just as brief, but impactful.

“Live well, live healthy, don’t smoke,” he said. “Just eat well and take care of yourself.”