90 years young: WWII vet goes for a sled ride

MEIGS COUNTY, Tenn. - The never-ending winter of 2015 has generated plenty of fun-in-the-snow videos. But few are as memorable as the one of "90-years-young" World War II veteran Claude Bratcher.

On Thursday, Bratcher's great-grandkids were out playing on a snowy hill near the family's East Tennessee home. They were taking turns riding in a sled pulled by an ATV.

"They were all out sledding," Bratcher's son John Bratcher recounted Friday evening. "I told Dad, 'You want to ride over and watch them?' and he said, 'Yeah, let's go.' So I put him in the truck and we rode over, and he sat there awhile and said, 'I believe I'll try it, too.'"

The move shocked and delighted Bratcher's great-grandkids, who range in age from five to 17.

"When Claude said he was going to go, it was like, everybody break out the cameras, it was awesome," Bratcher's grandson-in-law Anthony Smith said.

Smith captured the whirlwind ride with his GoPro camera and then shared it online, at which point the video started going viral.

"It really moves me to think about how people are saying, you know, 'Go for it! He's 90 years old!' And they're all upbeat about it, you know," Smith said. "I hope I'm that way when I'm his age."

In the video, Bratcher bumps along over the snowy ground, with the family's little dog Smitty scampering alongside the sled the entire time.

"He wanted to ride with me," Bratcher said with a smile.

This member of the Greatest Generation served in Word War II as a member of the 122nd US Naval Construction Battalion and hasn't slowed down too much since then.

"Well, you can't sit down and do nothing. You have to stay busy," Bratcher said. "If you sit down and do nothing, you're in trouble."

Bratcher and many of his family members live on 400 acres, where Bratcher is still active on the family farm.

You can watch the full video, originally posted on YouTube.