Pearl Harbor survivor Charlie Imus shares a few stories on his 100th birthday

POST FALLS — If you call Charlie Imus and he doesn’t pick up, his answering machine will tell you he’s probably out drinking beer and chasing women.

That, he says, is the secret to a long life.

"That's what I tell everyone," he said with a chuckle. "I never smoked, maybe that’s it."

The Navy veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor celebrated his 100th birthday on Wednesday, when his "Star-Spangled Banner" ringtone kept sounding as friends and loved ones called to wish him a happy day.

"I've out-survived all four of my sisters who were younger than I, one daughter, two wives,” he said. “I don't know why the good Lord decided to give me a long life. Why, I don't know. Born in 1920, your life expectancy was to about age 60, so I’ve almost overdone that by 40 years."

Imus, of Post Falls, was born in La Grande, Ore., just two years after the Spanish flu decimated the world's population. He shook his head slightly and became more serious when asked about the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It’s regrettable," he said. “They don't look like they're getting a handle on it as well or as good as they should."

He's always been a fairly healthy guy. Until recently, Imus participated in Fit and Fall Proof classes to help with balance and overall vitality. Although he was untouched by other ailments he's lived through, like tuberculosis or polio, he said pneumonia he had as an infant left its mark.

“I’ve always been short-winded with regard to sports and stuff like that,” he said. “I did wrassle when I was young. If I didn't get ’em pinned right quick, I might as well quit. I just couldn’t keep going."

Imus never got to finish high school before he enlisted in the Navy.

“My high school time was right in the middle of the Depression," he said. "Dad said he’d take me out of school to help with the family. Five kids, four daughters and I, and I was the oldest of the five of us.”

Imus has shared his service stories with the Press on occasion. Just last year he was the subject of an article looking ahead to Memorial Day. He was a Seaman 2nd Class assigned to the Navy's VP-23, an aircraft patrol squadron on Ford Island. During the first attack on Pearl Harbor, personnel were ordered to remain in their barracks until there was a lull. He later reported to the hangars and fired a few rounds at a Japanese airplane with a rifle.

"I was one of the first to arrive in the ordnance shop," he said in the April 25, 2019, article.

Damage to the Navy's grounded planes, Imus said, was devastating.

"All of our planes were destroyed except for one," he said.

Imus said he was never injured in the military, although he has broken a bone.

“The only major injury I’ve had is a broken ankle when I was poppin’ wheelies on my daughter's new birthday bicycle, being stupid,” he said.

And he has partaken in his share of excitement.

"I’ve climbed Mount Fuji, I’ve gone bungee jumping in New Zealand, I’ve been to a 500 Indianapolis race,” he said. "I bungee-jumped off the Kawarau Bridge, which is the first commercial bungee-jumping deal in the world. It was on my 80th birthday. I was 20 years younger."

He just grinned when asked what he thinks of every morning when he wakes up to greet the day.

"You just hope that your back ain’t hurtin’ like it can,” he said.