Business
(VIDEO) 102-Year-Old WWII Veteran’s ‘God Bless America’ Brings Brewers Crowd to Its Feet on 9/11 Anniversary
MILWAUKEE — A 102-year-old World War II Navy veteran brought a sold-out crowd at American Family Field to its feet Friday night, delivering a rendition of “God Bless America” during the seventh-inning stretch as the Milwaukee Brewers routed the Cincinnati Reds on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Sverre Vinje, a Rockford, Illinois, resident who served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945, led more than 41,000 fans in the song as the Brewers cruised to a 20-0 win that clinched the team a spot in the postseason. Footage of Vinje’s performance quickly spread across social media, with the crowd erupting into cheers before breaking into chants of “USA! USA!” once the final notes faded.
A 102-year-old World War II veteran brought the crowd to its feet at a Milwaukee Brewers game with a powerful rendition of “God Bless America” as the nation marked 25 years since the 9/11 attacks. pic.twitter.com/I8uZub911H
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 14, 2026
Vinje’s wartime service took him through two of the Pacific theater’s most brutal campaigns, the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa. According to an account from St. Bernadette Catholic Church, he served aboard the USS Donaldson, a ship whose World War II service earned seven battle stars. Vinje has said he made the decision to enlist after hearing news of the attack on Pearl Harbor. “Any good red-blooded American would want to do something about it,” Vinje said, explaining his choice to join the fight.
Friday’s performance was not Vinje’s first time leading a stadium in song. He has sung “God Bless America” at sporting events before, including games for the Rockford IceHogs hockey team, where he has become a familiar and beloved presence at Military Appreciation Night celebrations. During one such appearance earlier this year at the BMO Center in Rockford, Vinje reflected on what it meant to be included in the festivities. “It’s a night to get out for me because I don’t get out much, but it’s wonderful to be with all these good people,” Vinje said. “That’s really wonderful.”
Vinje’s hometown of Rockford has embraced him as a local treasure in recent years. In June, community members organized a surprise drive-by birthday celebration outside his home to mark his 102nd birthday, bringing together neighbors, motorcycle groups, emergency crews and local law enforcement for the tribute. Vinje said the outpouring caught him completely off guard. “It’s more than overwhelming,” he said, laughing. “I might get my heart going again.”
The birthday celebration was organized by VetsRoll, a nonprofit dedicated to honoring the region’s veterans, with the group’s president, Mark Finnegan, helping lead the effort. Finnegan said Vinje’s long relationship with the organization made the tribute especially meaningful. “Sverre has been a special part of our VetsRoll family for a lot of years now and the Rockford community,” Finnegan said. He noted the significance of Vinje’s age falling in the same year the country marked its 250th anniversary. “For Sverre, alone, at 102, he’s roughly 40 percent of the age of this country of 250 years,” Finnegan said.
Finnegan also spoke to the broader purpose behind honoring veterans like Vinje as their numbers continue to dwindle with each passing year. “It’s just important for people like younger generations to know that they are still there and their contributions they made to society, but it’s also important for them to know that we appreciate what they did,” he said.
Friday’s Brewers game carried its own significance beyond the anniversary and Vinje’s performance. Milwaukee’s 20-0 victory made the club the first team in Major League Baseball history to post multiple shutout wins of at least 20 runs in a single season, following a 22-0 blowout of the Seattle Mariners earlier in August. The win also clinched the Brewers a postseason berth, adding to the celebratory atmosphere already building inside the ballpark before Vinje even took his moment in the spotlight.
The convergence of a milestone anniversary, a clinching win and a centenarian veteran’s stirring performance made for a night that resonated well beyond Milwaukee, with clips of Vinje’s singing circulating widely online in the days that followed. For many watching, the moment offered a direct, living connection to a generation of Americans who served during World War II and are now increasingly rare, with most surviving veterans of that conflict now in their late 90s or older.
Vinje’s health has not always made public appearances easy. He suffered a serious fall and broke his hip in 2024, spending much of that year in physical therapy before undergoing home repairs, including new fixtures and safety improvements, provided free of charge by a local plumber who wanted to support a fellow veteran. Despite that setback, Vinje has continued to make appearances at community events in the time since, singing the same patriotic anthem that has become something of a signature for him at gatherings across the Rockford area.
For a crowd gathered on a somber national anniversary, Vinje’s rendition offered a moment of unity that cut across the usual boundaries of a baseball game, blending remembrance of the September 11 attacks with an even older generation’s wartime sacrifice. As the Brewers celebrated on the field following their playoff-clinching win, the image of a 102-year-old veteran leading tens of thousands of fans in song stood as its own kind of tribute, one organizers and fans alike said they hoped would remind younger generations of what came before them.
Vinje’s performance has since been shared and celebrated across social media platforms, with commentators and fans praising both the emotional weight of the moment and the resilience of a man who, more than eight decades after his own service, can still bring a packed stadium to its feet.
ANALYSIS: Australia’s prison population continues to grow, and the cost of crime is already high.
The power of Indigenous capital in WA business is growing.
The hub is a partnership between Barking and Dagenham Council, The Kindness Offensive, Food for All, Felix, City Harvest and Kingsley Hall.
Felix, a food redistribution charity, collects surplus food from shops and other providers so that it is not thrown away or incinerated.
It is given to local organisations, food banks, soup kitchens and schools, said David Goodfellow, one of the managers at Big Heart and a founder of The Kindness Offensive.
“They are the ones who are on the front line and they don’t have the resources to be able to feed all the people that are coming to their doors,” he said.
“We are a stepping stone, a middle ground between some of the big suppliers and some of the community-facing groups, to give them the supplies that they need.
“There’s a lot of people who are hungry.”
Perth-born clean-energy disruptor PolarBlue is packing up its WA operations and crossing the Bass Strait, committing $1.5 billion to establish an advanced manufacturing hub in Tasmania.
Gujarat added 230,000 new investors in August, accounting for 14.6% of the monthly additions, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 200,000 investors, or 12.9%, and Maharashtra with 160,000, or 10.2%.
ET BureauRajasthan and Tamil Nadu followed with 110,000 and 90,000 new registrations, accounting for 7.1% and 5.7%, respectively. The top five states together contributed 50.5% of August’s new investor registrations, NSE Pulse data showed.
Read more: Nifty may rebound to 23,800; Rupak De picks Apollo, Laurus Labs and Eternal for the week
Gujarat’s performance stood out, with new registrations rising 94.8% month-on-month and 134.9% year-on-year. Rajasthan recorded the second-highest sequential growth among major states at 36.7%, followed by Haryana at 23.3%. Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh saw registrations rise 11.2% and 7.2%, respectively.
The shift in leadership from Uttar Pradesh to Gujarat comes even as Uttar Pradesh continues to have the second-largest registered investor base nationally. Gujarat’s increase in new registrations made it the largest contributor to incremental investor participation during August.
Overall, new investor registrations rose 16.7% month-on-month and 24% year-on-year, marking an acceleration after relatively subdued registration momentum in the preceding months.Read more: Inside NSE IPO journey: Why India’s largest exchange took 10 long years to reach Dalal Street
West India led the sequential recovery, with registrations rising 40.9% month-on-month, followed by North India at 12.4%, East India at 7.3% and South India at 3.6%. Despite the sharper monthly growth in West India, North India remained the largest source of new investors, contributing 590,000 registrations, or 38.4% of August’s additions.
West India accounted for 460,000 new registrations, or 29.7%, followed by South India with 320,000, or 20.5%, and East India with 170,000, or 11.2%. The sharp increase in West India’s registrations lifted its contribution substantially during the month, although North India continued to account for the largest share of incremental participation. During FY27TD, 6.16 million new investors were added.
VO: Excellent Wrapper, But Weak Entry Point
In a summary of its 100-page report, external, the JCHR points out that AI has been responsible for numerous abuses of human rights.
It cites as examples the use of AI to create sexualised images of women and girls and scanning people’s faces without their consent.
The JCHR advocates the creation of a “single, independent AI oversight body… on a statutory basis”.
It argues that the current legal framework which applies to AI is “fragmented and difficult to navigate”, “leaving gaps in protection”.
“The AI Bill should establish a regulatory regime that classifies different risk levels and mandate more demanding obligations for higher risk AI systems and models,” it says.
“Obligations should be placed on all stages of the AI lifecycle, ensuring those responsible in the supply chain for designing, amending and utilising AI systems are aware of their obligations and they are effectively addressed.
“Some uses of AI should be prohibited outright because they are incompatible with human rights. Potential areas for action include subliminal techniques, and inappropriate use of profiling or biometric data.”
“AI is heralded as an unprecedented era of technological development with the potential to transform our lives for better or for worse,” said Sobel.
“It is moving with such speed and complexity that its impact is hard to accurately predict. What is clear is that at present we are unprepared to deal with its consequences however potentially dire they may be.”
The JCHR’s 12 members are drawn from both Houses of Parliament and they currently include MPs and peers from the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.
BBC News is seeking comment from the government on the call for the AI bill.
Monday’s report comes amid growing general anxiety over the challenges AI poses.
Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher who quit Anthropic, told the BBC this weekend that staff developing the systems were “genuinely frightened” for the future of humanity.
An Anthropic spokesperson told BBC News that it was building “models with some of the strongest safeguards in the industry”.
I have a masters degree in Analytics from Northwestern University and a bachelors degree in Accounting. I have worked in the investment arena for over 10 years starting as an analyst and working my way up to a management role. Dividend investing is a personal hobby and I look forward to sharing my thoughts with the Seeking Alpha community.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of AAPL, ACN, AMAT, APH, CTAS, DPZ, EOG, FAST, FDS, GGG, HCA, HD, HSY, JKHY, KLAC, LLY, LRCX, MA, MKTX, MPWR, MSCI, MSFT, NKE, NTES, NXPI, ODFL, PAYX, QCOM, RMD, ROL, ROST, SBUX, TJX, TSCO, TT, V, WST, ZTS either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Asian stocks fall as AI slowdown fears deepen, oil surge lifts rate risks
NSE‘s ₹22,561.5-crore IPO will dominate the week’s primary market activity, accounting for more than 90% of the value of issues opening for subscription.
The issue opens on September 17 and closes on September 21. Markets will remain shut on Monday, September 14, for Ganesh Chaturthi.
ET BureauThe ₹24,500 crore worth of IPOs opening for subscription during September 14-18 would be the highest since October 2025, when issues worth around ₹29,000 crore hit the market during the week of October 6-10.
Read more: Inside NSE IPO journey: Why India’s largest exchange took 10 long years to reach Dalal Street
Among other mainboard offerings, Hero Motors, SS Retail and Jindal Supreme India will open on September 16 and close on September 18. Hero Motors will raise around ₹1,000 crore, while SS Retail and Jindal Supreme India will raise ₹500 crore and ₹125 crore, respectively.
Two mainboard IPOs-Veegaland Developers and Manika Plastech- that opened last week will close during the week. Six SME IPOs that opened last week will also close during the week.Read more: Nifty may rebound to 23,800; Rupak De picks Apollo, Laurus Labs and Eternal for the week
Stock Market Debutants
The week will also see a flurry of listings, with 10 mainboard companies set to make their stock market debuts. Pranav Construction will list on September 15, followed by Glass Wall Systems India, Prasol Chemicals and Kanohar Electricals on September 16. Six companies – Asset Reconstruction Co India, Manipal Payment & Identity Solutions, Steamhouse India, LCC Projects, Karamtara Engineering and Rentomojo – will list on September 17. Four SME companies are also scheduled to list during the week. Apana Logistics will make its debut on September 15, while Infrax Renewable, Vinod Texworld and Amtech Esters will list on September 17.
Match of the Day: Wayne Rooney and Danny Murphy find the refereeing decisions in the Manchester derby baffling
Yes, the iPhone Duo Is a First-Generation Phone. That’s Why You Should Get One if You Can
This 24 Year Old Has $200,000 in CASH
-
Tech6 days agoMemory prices are slowing because buyers ran out of money
-
Tech17 hours agoThe Latest Weird Thing to Play Doom Is the Mapped-Out Brain of a Fruit Fly
-
Business4 days agoMicron Stock Climbs Above $1,031 as AI Memory Crunch and a $50 Billion Outlook Fuel the Rally
-
Business4 days agoAMD Stock Climbs After Management Lifts 2027 Data Center Outlook Toward $70 Billion in AI Sales
-
Crypto World5 days agoBitcoin price risks $76K drop as $78K support weakens
-
Fashion2 days agoWeekend Open Thread – Corporette.com
-
Crypto World6 days agoRobinhood Stock: How To Take Advantage With Reduced Risk
-
Crypto World3 days agoXAG/USD: Silver’s Short-Term Rally Meets Its Moment of Truth
-
Crypto World4 days ago2 Chip Stocks Broke Out This Week. Neither Was Nvidia
-
Crypto World5 days agoEthereum price stalls below $2,500 as ADX drops to 11
-
NewsBeat6 days agoEngland up in reading, maths and science rankings as Scotland and Wales dip
-
Crypto World3 days agoOKX launches 10x OpenAI, Anthropic X-Perps in Europe
-
Business3 days ago10 Most-Streamed Songs On Spotify In 2026 So Far, Led By Ella Langley’s Dominant Run On The Charts This Year
-
Tech3 days agoBattery life is the only iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo upgrade I care about. Apple didn’t disappoint
-
Crypto World3 days agoDiesel Tops $6 a Gallon for the First Time as 28 States Set Records
-
Crypto World6 days agoIntel Stock Jumps 9% on Chip Price Hike Report, US Stake Gains $36 Billion
-
Tech4 days agoApple Watch Ultra 4 vs Watch Ultra 3: Should you really spend another $799?
-
Crypto World4 days agoBitcoin price risks $70K if $78K neckline breaks
-
NewsBeat5 days agoWhat went right this week: an ‘historic’ fall in violent crime, plus more
-
Crypto World4 days agoPi Network ships Protocol 27 on a network with 14 million users and zero DeFi
You must be logged in to post a comment Login