WATCH– WWII Veteran Receives 1000 Cards for 103rd Birthday: ‘I Read Every One of Them’

World War II Veteran Orland Phillips received over 1,000 cards from people all over the country for his 103rd birthday on Saturday.

Phillips, of Willis, Virginia, has four daughters, and to celebrate the special occasion, they took to social media and asked people to send 103 cards to their father, according to WSLS. Word spread quickly, and after a request for the letters was shared more than 500 times, Phillips received more than 1000 letters, WUSA9 reports.

“I don’t know what to think about all that many cards. I have been working on reading them. I read every one of them,” Phillips told WSLS.

The cards came from 45 different states.

“I haven’t got any from Hawaii or Alaska yet, but I’ve got em’ from everywhere,” laughed Phillips while speaking with 107.1 PSK radio station. 

Phillips, a U.S. Army veteran, served as a machinist in the Pacific during World War II, and many of the cards he received thank him for his service to the United States and are of a patriotic theme, according to WSLS.

With a smile, Phillips said opening cards is “a good pastime.” Second-graders in the area even sent him cards.

“After this has happened, anytime we see anybody that’s older, we’ll definitely send them a card,” his daughter Mary told WSLS. “We’ve seen requests before and this means so much that we’ll definitely do that in the future.”