KEY POINTS:
Old soldier Jack Long reckons he knows how to pick the pretty ones - but it took him 30 years to make the move on his wartime Kiwi sweetheart.
Yesterday, the 88-year-old, who was a Marine in the Pacific during World War II, was at Memorial Day commemorations at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
The American public holiday honours US servicemen and women killed in action.
After action in Bougainville in 1943 Mr Long, then 24 and injured, was shipped to Auckland for a recuperation that lasted six months.
It was then that he met Phyllis, who was working in a department store, but while the pair were good friends, love didn't blossom immediately.
"I picked the best-looking girl. But it was wartime, and I was shy."
Mr Long returned to California and it wasn't until a mutual friend re-introduced them in 1973, after both had lost their partners, that something sparked, Mrs Long said.
"We met in Hawaii, and he was lovely. He went home and I came back here and a little time passed. He was there and lonely, I was here and he sent for me."
The couple have lived in Whangaparaoa since 1992.
About 150 people attended yesterday's ceremony.
