He was only in his junior year at St. Francis High School in Brooklyn. The year was 1944 and Edward Cress shifted his focus from his studies and from sports, since he excelled as a high school athlete, to what he felt was his duty. The United States had entered World War II and, in Cress' mind, high school would have to be put on hold.

On his 17th birthday, Cress left St. Francis and together with his cousin enlisted in the armed services. He had not been drafted as others had been in times of military conflict. Cress went voluntarily, which is hard to believe, considering he left the safety of academics and entered a world facing tyranny, a world in which military conflict was a reality.

"Everybody was gone," Cress said of the time and of his decision to enlist, which, to him, wasn't a very difficult one. "I happened to be a big guy. I was playing football. As of the time I was 12 or 13, you just wanted to go and everybody you knew wanted to go. In those days, we were just off of World War I twenty years before and everybody you knew was gone as soon as they were 18 whether they were drafted or not. Many people enlisted at 17."

On his 17th birthday, September 5, 1944, Cress and his cousin went to enlist with intentions of joining the Marines, but wound up joining the Navy. Three weeks later, he would go for his training and then in January 1945, he was shipped out to Florida, where he stayed for a year-and-a-half before being assigned to the USS Hamilton, which had returned from Okinawa.

Fortunately for Cress, he never saw combat, but his willingness to serve his country will forever be recognized as a supreme act of bravery. "I was very fortunate because at my time going in, there were many replacements going over to the West Coast because they were about to launch against Japan and they had to fill all the spots over there. They were taking people and I just happened to get very lucky and I was shipped to Miami in the supply division," he said. "They shipped you where they needed you."

Right out of training Cress volunteered for the amphibious division since he wanted to go out to sea. It's hard to believe that teens with their whole live ahead would want to go to battle, but for Cress and those like him, serving the country was thought of as a duty. "It's hard to relate the situation. But given the same circumstances today, you would want to save freedom for your family and that's what you were thinking. How could you live like the people in Germany and Japan? They were damn near slaves in their own country and they didn't even know it."

After the war was over, Cress spent two more years in the Navy before going to work and starting a family, but high school seemed like a lost opportunity, a time gone by. "I wanted to [go back to school], but I never got around to it," he said.

Throughout his career as a manager of Schaefer Brewery, Cress took many courses and went through many hours of training, but never received the high school diploma that eluded him 57 years ago.

This past Tuesday, on a warm summer day, Cress proved it's never to late to finish school when, at the age of 73, he was finally awarded a diploma by H. Frank Carey High School.

A ceremony was held at the Stewart Manor Elementary School, which is part of the Elmont School District, and featured numerous speakers congratulating Cress such as Elmont Superintendent of Schools Dr. Maria Palandra, Board of Education President Deanna Doreson and members of Cress' family including his grandchildren.

New York State Assemblyman Tom Alfano, who was instrumental in awarding Cress his diploma through Operation Recognition, a special program passed by the state legislature that awards World War II veterans their high school diplomas, hosted the graduation ceremony. "We're here to celebrate a great day for a great American," Alfano said as he spoke in front of Cress' family and friends.

The Franklin Square resident said he is happy to receive his high school diploma. "I wanted it and I just couldn't get to it all those years," he said. "I never forgot that I didn't finish high school."