ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — At 103 years old, Ken Schubring has lived more life than most of us can imagine. Yet the moment you ask him what it felt like to be 17, just a kid stepping out of high school and straight into the United States Air Force, the memories return with striking clarity.

“Everything seemed to lean toward that being in the cards sooner rather than later,” the Habersham County man told Atlanta News First. “So not much of a decision to be made.”

He didn’t know it then, but that decision would place him at the center of some of the most defining moments in American history.

Assigned to Hawaii, Schubring expected routine duties and the sun-soaked days that came with a posting on Oahu. But what came next would change the world.

“I started my guard duty on December 6th … and it was to end on the morning of the 7th,” he recalled.

After finishing his shift, Schubring went to wash up and grab breakfast. But while he ate, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

“The sky was full of airplanes, dive bombers,” he said. “I hit the deck, crawled to a ditch nearby… and stayed there until the first wave had finished.”

In minutes, the United States was thrust into World War II. Schubring lost friends that day — people he trained with, ate meals with, laughed with. Their names and faces still remain with him.

Schubring went on to become a flight engineer on B-29 bombers, flying dangerous missions from Saipan, which is about 1,400 miles south of Japan.

“We’d fly straight over Iwo Jima or around it to our targets,” he said. “The bombings were individual bombings.”

Even then, the greatest shift in warfare was still hidden from them.

“It was the best-kept secret of the war,” he said. “I can truthfully, without any equivocation, say we knew nothing about it until it happened.”

That secret was the atomic bomb, a single weapon that would change the world and lead to the war’s end.

Schubring remembers exactly where he was when victory came.

“About two hours into our return from a bombing raid over Osaka … the radio announced Emperor Hirohito had asked for an armistice,“ he said. ”The war was over.”

Schubring came home, finished college, and built a family and career. But the memories and the weight of the sacrifices never left him.

“I think I’ve outlived everybody else,” he said softly.

Even now, at 103, Schubring keeps up with the world.

“Catch me on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday … whatever day it is,” he joked. “I’ll probably have a different view depending on what the news was.”

In a time when division often seems louder than unity, his perspective offers something we all need: hope.

“In spite of conflict, division, or whatever’s going on … I still think it’s the greatest country on earth,” he said. “All you have to do is be outside of the United States to appreciate that.”

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