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It was also the latest chapter in what has been a remarkable life for Levine, including the harrowing few months that ended his WWII service. On June 10, 1944, four days after D-Day,

Levine's Army battalion landed on Utah Beach in Normandy, France. Raised in the New York City borough of the Bronx, Levine was only 19. The beach had been secured by then, but as the

soldiers moved inland in the coming days and weeks, they began to encounter heavy German resistance. A few weeks later, as the Allies pushed into France, Levine was in a foxhole when a

German grenade exploded nearby, injuring him in the thigh. "I was on the ground, and I looked up, and there was this (German) guy with a gun, and my buddy is over here,” Levine said in

a 2017 oral history interview for the U.S. Holocaust Museum. “He got up and started to run. You don't do that, and the Germans turned and shot him, so I put my hands up." German

troops took him prisoner and brought him to a holding area nearby, but he was not out of the battle zone. Levine was further injured the next day after U.S. artillery hit his position.

"When the shell hit, we all went up in the air ... and that's when my leg was shattered,” he said in the oral history interview. He was brought to a German field hospital in

France, where the amputation was performed. He awoke from the surgery without his dog tags, which listed the letter ‘H’ (Hebrew) for his religion. Levine believes they were removed by the

doctor who performed the surgery, who had asked about the letter on the tag shortly before Levine lost consciousness. Levine then was sent to a German POW hospital in Rennes, France, where

Allied troops liberated him about two months later. 'A LUCKY, LUCKY PERSON' After he left the Army and returned to the U.S., he went to college and eventually opened three

Arby's restaurant franchises before retiring. Last December, both Levine and his wife contracted COVID-19. Levine recovered, but his wife of 70 years did not. He now lives in Ithaca,

N.Y., near his daughter, Jane. Levine called having a family his proudest accomplishment. "Just make every effort you can to make sure your family is happy and content,” he said. “To

me, that is what life is all about, and if you have a family, you're a lucky, lucky person."