Pittsburgh-area World War II veteran celebrates 100th birthday

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A World War II Army veteran from western Pennsylvania is celebrating a century on this earth.

Arcangelo Carosi was born in Ellwood City. During World War II, he helped run a medical supply depot in Chabua, India, that supplied American forces who battled the Japanese. After the war, he worked 27 years at the VA hospital in Butler where he was the chief X-ray technician. 

“He is one of the hardest-working people I’ve known,” said Arcangelo Carosi’s son Paul. “He would work at the hospital, come home, eat, and then go do remodeling work, he would put kitchens in and family rooms and put additions on people’s houses.” 

As for some of Arcangelo’s biggest accomplishments? 

“Being the chief of X-ray, I worked on treating people with cancer,” he said. And he’s proud of Paul for going to college. 

“Every day, he’d say, ‘You gotta go to college, don’t be a ditch digger.’ That’s what in the Depression era they would say, that’s the worst thing you could be so I was able to go to college,” Paul said.

Arcangelo helped build the American Legion Post 778 where he spends most of his time with friends. He also built his home and most of his furniture by hand in Butler.

“He’s always keeping busy and I think that’s what keeps him alive, he’s so active,” Paul said. “His father was like that too, his father was a really good landscaper and he was still landscaping until 93.”

Arcangelo says that vitamins help longevity, along with playing cards and having hobbies like stamp collecting.