Wednesday, November 11, 2026
President Donald Trump honored 103-year-old Corporal Wilbur J. "Jack" Myers, one of the last surviving liberators of the Dachau concentration camp, during the National Veterans Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday, and Myers rose from his seat as the president singled him out.
Video of the moment, posted by Nick Sortor on X from Trump War Room footage, shows Trump speaking at the podium in the Memorial Amphitheater as Myers, seated among the veterans in uniform with his medals on his chest, gets to his feet to applause.
Myers was born June 17, 1923, in Williamsport, Maryland, and was drafted into the Army in 1943. He served as a corporal gunner with the 692nd Tank Destroyer Battalion in the European theater, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge and helping liberate Dachau in April 1945. He was awarded the Bronze Star, and the battalion was designated a liberator unit. He is the last surviving veteran of the 692nd, according to a tribute read into the Congressional Record in May 2025.
Myers has spent his later years telling his story to younger generations, visiting schools and returning to Normandy for D-Day anniversaries. On July 11 this year he sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" on the field at Camden Yards before a Baltimore Orioles game as part of the America's 250 celebration, and last November he opened the Brunswick Veterans Day Parade in Maryland by singing the anthem.
Wednesday's observance was the 73rd annual National Veterans Day Observance at Arlington. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump took part in the 11 a.m. wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, with Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance also attending, before the president delivered remarks at 11:30 a.m. in the Memorial Amphitheater. In his Veterans Day proclamation, Trump said the Department of Veterans Affairs processed a record 3.1 million disability claims this year, cut its claims backlog by more than 70 percent, opened 47 new health care facilities and housed nearly 52,000 homeless veterans last year.