Vintage photo of handsome war veteran going viral

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Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Vintage photo of handsome local war vet going viral
A photo of a bright-eyed, dimpled soldier with a perfect pearly white smile is breaking hearts all over social media.

NEWARK, Del. -- A photo of a bright-eyed, dimpled soldier with a perfect pearly white smile is breaking hearts all over social media.

The vintage picture, which was taken in 1950 before the soldier's deployment in Korea, has gone wildly viral since it was posted on Reddit - with some of his many admirers calling him a babe and a hunk.

More than 3 million people have viewed the handsome headshot so far. So - who is he? Do some digging and you'll find that the man's grandson, Derek Schwendeman, posted it.

Derek lives near Newark, Delaware and gave WPVI-TV, our sister station in Philadelphia, the scoop - showing off his handsome grandpa.

His name is Thomas and he's 86 years young.

Thomas lives in Oxford in Chester County, Pennsylvania and is happily married to his sweetheart, Fleecie.

The two think this is a hoot, with grandma laughing that she got him first - 65 years ago!

"She knew, but he didn't. She met him bowling one night and she decided to snap him up," Derek said. "She didn't give him much of a chance!"

And when Fleecie asked him if he would have lived his life any differently had he known that he was this attractive to other women, he said, "Nah!"