Harry Kaplun was a 22-year-old paratrooper who made a number of jumps as a member of the 457th Field Artillery Battalion of the 11th Airborne Division while fighting in the Pacific during World War II.

The 88-year-old man, who has lived in Venice for more than 30 years, was part of an invasion force that rescued more than 2,300, mostly Americans, held by the Japanese in Los Banos Prison Camp in the Philippines on Feb. 21, 1945.