Exclusive | WWII veteran becomes viral sensation thanks to Gen-Z neighbor

This vet went viral.A 98-year-old World War II and Korean War veteran has become a social media star, with fans around the world saluting him for his service — thanks to a 26-year-old neighbor.Ross Longo, of Lake Placid, Fla., has lived next door to Sevastian Munguia-Barajas and his parents for over 20 years, and since he does not have any relatives nearby, they welcomed him into their family.“They adopted me, and I adopted them,” Longo told The Post.“I consider him my grandpa, honestly,” added Munguia-Barajas, whose family moved Longo into their home last month.The friendship went viral last year when Munguia-Barajas launched the TikTok and Instagram account @your98yearoldvet to document and share their everyday adventures.“One day I recorded our normal day, which was, I went over there, we went to go get breakfast and I took him to the grocery store.I think that video had like a million views overnight,” he recalled.The “Ross the Vet” page is now filled with clips of everything from Longo giving life advice to trips to Taco Bell, Wendy’s and Chick-fil-A, to the pair spending holidays together and paying it forward by helping other veterans in need.They’ve brought a birthday cake over to a Vietnam vet who lives alone and is battling cancer and donated Longo’s used recliners and a scooter to other veterans in Highlands County, which they and around 15,000 vets call home.“Today, I paid for someone’s breakfast who was a veteran.

I do that often, just to show appreciation to them because a lot of these guys get walked past,” said Munguia-Barajas, who was awarded a Good Neighbor Grant for his altruistic work by the nonprofit Fosters Outriders.A son of Italian immigrants, Longo, who was born in Connecticut and raised in St.Louis, Mo., signed up for the Navy in 1943 at just 15, although the minimum age to enlist was 17.

That’s because he lied about his age, which was common at the time.“And they never asked no questions; they took me,�...