100-year-old World War II vet’s longevity secret: Table tennis and red wine

If there is living proof 100 is the new 70, Tony Vieceli is Exhibit A.

The Mount Prospect resident celebrated his first century on earth Monday — a life of service to his country, devotion to his family and an example of the benefits of an active life.

The World War II vet remains alert and youthful. When people ask for the secret to his longevity, he has a simple answer.

“Ping-pong kept me alive,” he begins, “and two glasses of red wine.”

For the past three decades, Vieceli has been cultivating his passion for table tennis, tapping into a network of players at area senior centers. However, his playing days came to a halt about three years ago when he fell while attempting a shot, resulting in balance issues.

Still, he was able to celebrate his birthday recently at a restaurant with roughly three dozen of his friends and fellow table tennis enthusiasts.

But his life wasn’t all fun and games, though he does like to joke about some of the more perilous parts.

Vieceli, who grew up in Cicero, received his draft notice for World War II in the summer of 1944 and began his Army duties at Fort Bliss, Texas, a place he remembers for its sagebrush and snakes.

One night, he settled down on his blanket. As he was about to lay down, he noticed something moving.

“I carried a pen light at that time. It was night out. I bent down, put the light on. Guess what was on the pillow? A rattlesnake. A nice five-footer. He saw the light and went that way,” he said, motioning with his hands. “I didn’t sleep too good that night.”

The Army sent him to the Philippines, first to Leyte, then to Manila.

“I was on an oil tanker, six Army guys managing the guns,” he recalled.

As the boats pulled into Manila, he remembers seeing white buildings with holes indicating where it was bombed to get the Japanese out.

In 2010, he was among 35 veterans flown to Washington, D.C. on an honor flight, where they mingled with celebrities including Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

Following the war, he became a skilled cabinet maker and eventually went to work for Pepper Construction. He married his wife Dolores in 1951. Their marriage lasted until her death in 2005.

Their daughter Jackie, a retired political science professor who taught at Minnesota State University in Mankato, has been blind since birth due to excess oxygen in her incubator.

Her father used his woodworking skills to help her, cutting maple strips into the shape of a triangle to aid her geometry lessons. When she struggled to walk as a toddler, he built a circular walking rail out of aircraft parts he bought at a surplus sale.

“They made sure that I could be independent,” said Jackie, who now lives with her father and helps take care of him.

Jackie went on to earn a Ph.D. and two master’s degrees, specializing in African politics and developing countries.

Her father once told a classmate who marveled at her debate skills, “They took her eyes, but they didn’t take her brain.”

Vieceli lives in the house he and his wife bought in Mount Prospect in 1994 — he complied with his wife’s desire for a new kitchen, installing the cabinets and performing electrical work.

Through the years, Vieceli has dealt with a few health setbacks, including congestive heart failure and a torn meniscus, but his daughter said he has gradually regained strength, although he can no longer make it down to the basement workshop where he used to fashion fish lures.

But his spirits remain strong.

“Some of these old guys, they don’t know what the hell to do with themselves,” he said. “If they would stay busy, it would be a different story.”