Cary World War II veteran honored for 100th birthday with 100 American flags

Anyone driving through the Lake Killarney neighborhood in Cary is bound to notice a modest, tan house with 100 American flags waving proudly from four-foot-tall posts placed in neat rows across the lawn.

Each flag represents a year of life lived by Cary resident and World War II veteran Frank Doroba.

Doroba was enjoying coffee and birthday cake with a few of his neighbors while everything was being set up, so he was completely surprised when as they drove him home, they turned the corner and he saw his yard covered in flags and about 50 of his neighbors there to greet him.

"I was surprised. I'm still in shock," Doroba said in an interview Sunday afternoon. "I've never had something like this done for me in all my life."

The flags were erected by the local division of the U.S. Naval Sea Cadets Corps, a group of teenagers 13 and older who receive training in the values and disciplines of the U.S. Navy, the local division's Commanding Officer Aaron Stain said in an interview Friday.

The cadets also presented Doroba with a pristine U.S. Navy flag in an official flag presentation ceremony Sunday afternoon, at which point Doroba became emotional as he said he had never been honored in this way.

"I've never had a surprise like I had today," he said. "I'm going to be 100, but I still got a heart. That's my nature, I'm soft hearted."

The celebration was organized by a few of Doroba's neighbors who got together in a Lake Killarney neighborhood group on Facebook to come up with a special way to honor his 100th birthday, which technically falls on Wednesday.

Two neighbors, Cheryl Ann Valenti and her father, Pete Valenti, said Doroba began to feel like family after more than a decade of living across the street from him.

Doroba has always been the type of person to go out of his way to do anything for anybody, even as his age has made it more difficult to do so, Cheryl Ann Valenti said. They wanted to do something for him to honor and thank him for his service, she said.

"Not too many people know to ask about those things, so that's why this is really good too. Now he's not just Frank the neighbor, he's Frank the vet," she said.

The best part about Sunday's celebration was getting the chance to meet more of his neighbors, many of whom he exchanged phone numbers and addresses so they can stay in touch, Doroba said. He even got a hug from a neighbor who stopped by to drop off some flowers, he said.

"She said, 'Can I hug you?' And I said 'Oh, I'm dying for a hug. I ain't had a hug for a year,'" Doroba said.

"I live by myself and I talk to myself and I get an answer once in a while," he said, laughing.

Pete Valenti, who is 78, said he and Doroba became fast friends after they realized they grew up a mere three blocks away from one another on the near north side of Chicago, Valenti said. The two sit in each other's garages for hours swapping tales about their lives and what it was like to grow up in the city, he said.

"He has a good heart," Pete Valenti said. "He reminds me so much of my grandfather, you know, always talking, always jolly, always out in the yard. And that's the way people were when we lived in the city. Everybody knew everybody."

Doroba served in the U.S. Navy Construction Battalion, also known as the Navy Seabees, doing construction work for the Navy from 1943 to 1946, Valenti said. He enlisted at the age of 22 and served domestically and abroad on various islands in the South Pacific as well as at Okinawa.

Nearly 76 years after World War II ended, Doroba still carries many memories from his time in the Navy - old photos, letters he wrote to his mother while deployed and a yearbook he was given upon completion of his service that contains the names and photos of everyone he served with. Doroba saved them for decades along with a love letter written to him by his late wife, who he said is the one and only love of his life.

Doroba said he hopes to pass these pieces of his history on to the next generation of U.S. Navy officers, perhaps to the Sea Cadets who honored him Sunday afternoon, so that they are never forgotten.

This is the very mission of the Veterans Network Committee of Northern Illinois, the organization that provided the 100 flags that will stand in Doroba's front lawn for the next week, Stain said.

The Veterans Network Committee is based in Elgin and strives to honor veterans across the region with various events and ceremonies to ensure they are taken care of and feel valued and supported by their community, he said.