NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Headed toward his hundredth birthday, David Oreck still has the pilot’s license he got as a teenager.

WGNO Good Morning New Orleans features reporter Bill Wood wants to show you that even on a drizzly day David Oreck finds freedom.

Sometimes aboard the go-cart, he got for his birthday.

That was way back when he turned 80.

For a lot of us, David Oreck is a household name.

You probably have his name around your house.

On your vacuum cleaner that has his name on it.

That’s the Oreck.

On television, he was a star.

He sold his vacuum cleaners for half a century.

And these days, he still cleans up well.

Around the house at the end of a country road in Mississippi, not far from New Orleans.

David Oreck says, “as it turns out, I’m still around.”

He’s a Veteran of World War 2.

He enlisted in fly B-29 bombers in the United States Air Force.

After the war, he navigated to New Orleans where he turned a part-time job into a half-a-billion-dollar-a-year company.

Since he sold the business a few years back, he can sit back.

But he still stands by his motto.

David Oreck says, “never, ever, ever give up.”

He’s a veteran.

Of life.

Liberty.

And the pursuit of cleanliness.

David Oreck is truly one of our Veterans Voices on WGNO.