'Get a Little More Backbone': WWII Vet Celebrates 100th Birthday by Sharing Direct Message About 'Hard Work' and Today's Young People

A World War II veteran had a direct message about young Americans as she recently commemorated her 100th birthday.

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Dorothy Lassig of Stewartville, Minnesota, was one of the 200,000 women who served in the military during WWII, working as a pharmacist’s mate third class in the U.S. Navy.

“I enlisted on my 20th birthday,” Lassig told KTTC-TV.

Lassig, who has been a widow for more than 40 years, told Fox News she and others felt compelled to take action and serve after Pearl Harbor, especially considering the dire state of the economy.

She said she and other women “took the place of men that could go to the front [lines].”

“We had a really deep depression,” she said. “There were no jobs for anybody, really. And we were attacked. Pearl Harbor did a lot to us. When something like that happens, it’s a lot different than it is nowadays. You don’t even stop to think about it. It’s just something you have to do.”

Lassig was stationed in Key West and later in Miami Beach, Florida.

And while the mother of eight, grandmother of 15, and great-grandmother of 15 shared several other details about her life and family, what she said about young people today — especially considering her own military service and sacrifice — is most notable.

Lassig said she finds it tough to see so many youths “who don’t do anything but party” and expressed her wish to see them get a bit tougher.

“I wish they would get a little more backbone,” she said. “Hard work is not as important to some kids today. I think the pandemic did a lot toward that.”

Read what else Lassig had to say here.