TROY – Charles W Love turned 100 years old on Saturday at Troy Manor with a party including many friends and family.

While 100 years holds a lot of memories, Love remembers many of his crystal-clear.

Love joined the Army at the age of 17 and soon found himself in the midst of World War II and was one of the first Americans who entered the Dachau concentration camp built by Nazi Germany.

He boasts about sitting in Hitler’s chair at The Eagles Nest located in the Bavarian Alps.

“I spent a solid year in Austria after the war which was my favorite place I was ever in, it’s beautiful country and I would go back if I could”, Love said. “The only places I didn’t go was Russia, Sweden and Denmark. Everyplace else I went.”

When Love entered the military at 17, he went to boot camp in Oklahoma and was one of four men who became ill with Scarlet Fever and was the only one to survive.

Love was in the military just three days shy of 42 years. After seeing active duty as a combat medic during WWII he was active in the reserves the rest of the time.

Love was a member of the 42 Rainbow infantry division during the war and helped liberate some 30,000 inmates at Dachau.

Love reached the rank of Seargent Major during his Army career and was part of the “Battle of the Bulge.”

He was awarded a Purple Heart and has 16 different ribbons that were placed on his Army uniform that he plans to be buried in.

“He worked at Scullen Steel from the time he was 14 until he went in the military, he came back and went right back to work for them”, stated his daughter, Laura Lewis. “His great-grandfather was one of the first sets of employees there, his grandfather, his dad, my dad, both of his brothers and a mess of uncles and aunts.”

Love also spent time from 1976-1980 in Breckenridge Hills as a police officer and then police commissioner and treasurer as well.

Even with all the things he did with the military and then his time in Breckenridge Hills he still found time to make wooden toy boxes, toys, and “a lot of Grinches” Love said.

“He made outside playhouses; I had four kids, so I had four little playhouses in my back yard” Lewis said.

Love married his wife, Dorothy (Ray) Nov. 30, 1947, who passed away in 2006. Love had two daughters, Laura Lewis and Linda Welsh, eight grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.