Local Hero: Pasco Honors Veteran Jim Rickes On 100th Birthday

PASCO COUNTY, FL — Grab the tissues and watch this moving tribute to a true American hero.

On Thursday, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, Pasco County Fire Rescue, family, friends, fellow veterans and neighbors of Jim Rickes celebrated his 100th birthday with a drive-by parade.

A Navy veteran during World War II, Rickes helped build the USS Missouri and the USS Iowa battleships.

For those who aren't familiar with these World War II icons, Mighty Mo was the third ship in the Navy to be named for a U.S. state and is best remembered as the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan, ending World War II. The USS Missouri was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944, fighting in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

She continued serving the Navy until March 31, 1992, when she was finally decommissioned after serving in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm. In 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor.

The USS Iowa, the fourth ship in the Navy to be named after a state, served in the Atlantic during World War II, carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt across the Atlantic to Algeria in 1943 to meet with Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin in Tehran. She also served as the Third Fleet flagship, flying Adm. William F. Halsey's flag at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.

In 2011, the USS Iowa was donated to the Los Angeles-based nonprofit non-profit Pacific Battleship Center and was permanently moved to Berth 87 at Port Los Angeles where she was opened to the public as the USS Iowa Museum.

Thank you for your service to our country, Jim Rickes.