Proving that patriotism cannot be measured by a person’s race or culture, World War II, Korea and Vietnam War veteran Robert Nobuo Izumi has lived nearly his entire life serving our country.  Izumi, who is a Japanese-American, was forced into an internment camp with his family shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In June 1944 he decided to join the 442^nd Regimental Combat Team, an all Japanese-American unit. To this day, the unit remains the most decorated in U.S. military history. He later moved to the 101^st Airborne, and then stayed in Germany after the war, and served in Patton’s unit.  After the Vietnam War, Izumi was assigned to the astronaut program at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

He, along with Helen Patton, the granddaughter of Gen. George Patton, laid a wreath at the general’s final resting place in Luxembourg American Cemetery last month.