At 104 years old, Vicki Herrell needs assistance to walk these days, but her memory of a century packed with warplanes, Navy transport flights and three separate marriage proposals remains sharp. The Colorado resident spent her youth riveting fuselages for one of the deadliest night fighters of World War II, then enlisted in the Navy and flew troops coast to coast before a long career with a major airline.
Herrell moved to Ohio at 17 and went to work as a riveter during the war, joining the ranks of women known collectively as Rosie the Riveter, a term that refers to women who produced tanks, ships, planes, and other materiel on the home front, according to CBS Colorado. Her specific job was building fuselages for the Northrop P-61 Black Widow, which the outlet notes was the first operational U.S. warplane designed as a night fighter and the first aircraft designed to use radar, dating to 1940. That production effort was part of a massive wartime buildup in Akron, Ohio, where the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation expanded from just 30 employees in 1939 to 35,000 workers by 1942 to mass-produce warplane components, including P-61 fuselages and outer wing sections, according to the Warfare History Network.
From the Rivet Line to the Cockpit
After her work as a riveter, Herrell enlisted in the Navy as a WAVE, the report states, an acronym standing for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. The branch was created when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Public Law 689 on July 30, 1942, establishing the Navy Women's Reserve to handle shore duties and free up male sailors for combat at sea, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command. Herrell served as a flight attendant in the naval transport service, transporting troops coast to coast, and by the war's end the WAVES had reached a peak strength of over 86,000 members serving across 900 shore stations in roles from flight transport to weather forecasting and flight instruction, per the National WWII Museum.
Herrell has an intense interest in aviation that carried well beyond her Navy service. After leaving the Navy, she became a flight attendant for Trans World Airlines, a career she pursued so enthusiastically that marriage was not a priority for her at the time, the CBS Colorado report notes. She went on to earn a half-million-mile pin during her time with the airline.
Three Fiancés, No Weddings — Until One
It was during this era that Herrell found herself engaged to three men at once, in New York, Kansas City, and Phoenix, according to the outlet's report. She returned all three engagement rings and married none of them, choosing instead to keep flying. She eventually did marry, though the timing came later in her life, and her career at TWA ended after that marriage, at which point she centered her life on family.
Somewhere along the way, Herrell also crossed paths with aviation royalty. She met Amelia Earhart and spent a few minutes with her backstage, an encounter she still recalls from a life now stretching past a century. More recently, she had her picture taken with former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning on her 100th birthday.
Documenting a Disappearing Generation
Herrell's century of stories has drawn attention beyond her own family. In early 2024, she took part in the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System's Living History Video Memoir Program, recording an account of her naval transport service, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The program recruited student volunteers to record testimonies from local military veterans, preserving firsthand accounts before they are lost. In November 2025, at age 101, Herrell traveled to Washington, D.C., through AARP's Wish of a Lifetime program to tour the World War II Memorial and view aircraft at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, where she said she felt like a celebrity seeing the same types of planes she once helped build, per AARP.
Herrell's longevity places her among an increasingly small group. The Department of Veterans Affairs, drawing on Census Bureau data, estimated that roughly 66,000 World War II veterans remained alive nationwide in 2024, out of the 16.4 million Americans who served, a figure reported by Newsweek. Projections from the National WWII Museum go further, indicating that fewer than 0.5% of American World War II service members were alive as of late 2025, with the national total expected to fall below 5,000 by 2030, according to the Park County Community Journal.
Federal support for that dwindling population has expanded in recent years. Legislation enacted in late 2022 expanded VA medical and nursing home benefits to all living World War II veterans regardless of income or service-connected disability status, eliminating financial qualification barriers for an estimated 167,000 living veterans at the time of passage, according to estate planning firm Beck, Lenox & Stolzer.
Her Advice for a Long Life
Asked what has kept her going, Herrell pointed to habits rather than luck. She said she tries to stay active and walk, and stressed that exercise is very important, even as she now needs assistance getting around. She also advised that people should maintain a great interest in everything going on around them, adding that curiosity is the key to a long life.
