Hero's Farewell: Last WW2 Marine's Funeral

0:00On March 4th, hundreds of people lined the streets of Salisbury this week for the funeral of Jim Ren, a 105-year-old royal marine, and one of the last World War II veterans from his unit. Jim joined the Marines at age 19 after the RAF and Army turned him down. He trained quickly and shipped out on the battle cruiser HMS Repulse, hunting threats in the early days of the war. Sent to the Pacific to check Japanese moves, his ship came under air attack in the South China Sea on December 10th, 1941, and sank in. Just 80 minutes of fierce fighting. Captured soon after while fleeing Singapore, Jim spent the next three-and-a-half years in brutal Japanese prisoner of war camps, facing starvation, disease, and forced labor on runways and rail lines. He credited tight bonds with his fellow Marines for pulling him through. Back home weighing barely 80 pounds, he reunited with Margaret, the woman he met right before deploying. They married a year later and shared 74 devoted years until she passed in 2020.

1:02The service wrapped with bugle, sounding as Marines and family said goodbye, saluting a true hero's life. 3. Lifting back into the city of R Thailand, his teenage backpackers identified her family along the boat on the road. However, they married a year later and shared 74 devoted years until she passed from 2020. The service wrapped with bugle, sounding as Marines and Family said goodbye, saluting a they're