Roanoke Division Director Bud Hippisley, W2RU, interviewed 108-year-old Cliff Kayhart, W4KKP, of White Rock, South Carolina — the oldest known radio amateur in the US — about his experiences in the US Army Signal Corps during World War II.

An articulate and animated Kayhart recounted his deployment to the Pacific Theater — specifically Iwo Jima — where he’d been tasked with setting up a radio station for the airmen and soldiers there to keep better informed about what was happening back home.

At the close of their conversation, Hippisley, who presented Kayhart with his ARRL Centurion Award plaque in November, called Kayhart “part of America’s greatest generation.” The Centurion Award recognizes hams100 years old or older. The interview runs about 15 minutes.