As a kid during the Great Depression, Robert Powers always wanted to be in the Navy, but he never imagined being drafted for World War II.

After 100 years, Powers is one of the oldest veterans in Clay County, and his memory is as sharp as his wit. When WWII began, Powers was still in high school.

“I remember we said we weren’t going to worry because the war was going to be over in a couple of years,” he said.

But they were wrong.

A few years into college, Powers and his musical quartet were practicing when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

“The four of us said we were all going to try and go out together,” he said. “One went into the Marines; one into the Navy; one into the Army; and I went into the Seabees – four different places, and we all survived the war,” Powers said.

When he got on the bus at his home in Clarksville, Tennessee, he didn't know where he was going.

“Back then, they assigned you to whatever branch. My mother told me, ‘Don’t you go into the Navy, you tell them you can’t swim.’”

After finding out his assignment, he called home. “Momma, I got good news and bad news. I’m in the Navy but don’t have to swim because I’m in the Seabees.’ She said, ‘What in the world are the Seabees?’”

In the Navy, “You couldn’t wear glasses back then,” Powers said. Because of this, he was put on limited service, which kept his Naval career stateside from 1943 to 1946. However, his typing skills helped him become a Yeoman. He spent most of his time in Joliet, Illinois, where he did payroll, accounting and typing for the Seabees, the Navy’s elite construction battalion. Once the war ended, he was sent to Great Lakes, Michigan, to help discharge paperwork for fellow servicemembers.

Powers loves his time in the Navy, just as he still does for his wife, Patricia, whom he was married to for 58 years before she passed away in 2007.

The only thing they disagreed on was her telling him to remarry after she died. He said no, telling her: “You’re my one and only.”

When he was in the Navy, Powers said, “Everyone was on the same level fighting for the same cause.”

His oldest son, Dr. Robert Powers Jr., carried out the family tradition of service by serving 37 years in the Army and Navy Reserves and maintaining a private medical practice.

“What their generation had to endure influenced us significantly,” the son said.

A native of Tennessee, Powers Sr. moved to Clay County in the early 90s to be close to his three children. Growing up, his family lived on the same street, and now his children, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren live in the county and are close to each other. Keeping family close is another tradition well-kept for the veteran whose memories are unfaded by the passing of time.