VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — A Navy veteran in Virginia Beach celebrated his 100th birthday Tuesday with a surprise party held in his honor.

During the celebration, Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer declared July 30 as Commander Leo Eugene Dorman Day.

“I’ve appreciated all the things you’ve awarded me in my lifetime,” Dorman said during the celebration. “I did a lot of flying and enjoyed it all. Maybe one of these days I’ll go flying again.”

Leo Dormon, who was a lieutenant commander, was born July 30, 1924 in Saline, Louisiana. Since he was a little boy, planes were his passion.

Dormon said all he ever wanted to do was fly. After college, he enlisted in the United States Navy, where he got his flight wings in November 1943. Dormon served during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

He spent a large portion of his military career as a flight instructor teaching roughly 300 pilots how to fly. He said he always had the need for speed.

“I did anything I could get into that had to do with flying aircraft of all kinds, and I just it just came natural to me,” Dormon said. “I had a very good flying life.”

Dormon’s log books show he flew more than 10,000 flight hours over the course of his career.

“I have flown a lot of hours and a lot of different airplanes,” Dormon said. “I loved every minute of it.”

Dormon said he has flown 40 different aircraft. He was also the operations officer on Ebeye Island, a remote site in the Pacific Ocean where nuclear tests took place.

He was married to his wife for many years before she died. He has a daughter and a granddaughter.