At 101 years old, retired Col. Michael Buckley Jr., of Saratoga, can still remember the experience like it happened yesterday.

As a major, he was working as a military observer with the British Eighth Army, 5th South African Brigade in Libya, North Africa, when he was captured by German General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps. His capture took place during the Battle of Tottensonntag in November of 1941, prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Buckley said his powerful Catholic faith was crucial in helping him through the experience.

"When you get captured, there's a terrific loss of morale," Buckley says.

The prisoners were turned over by the Germans to the Italians and housed in POW camps in Italy, after Italy declared war against the United States.

"It wasn't a prison. It was barracks," says Buckley's granddaughter Mary Pope-Handy of Los Gatos. "And the prisoners were often hungry. Families were allowed to send food, but a lot of times the prisoners never received the packages."

Part of the reason Buckley initially didn't receive any packages was because his family had no idea what had happened to him. They eventually got word of his location through church officials.

While Buckley was an Italian prisoner, he was in the company of Harold Denny, a New York Times war correspondent known for writing anti-Nazi pieces. The two were placed in separate rooms and prohibited from talking to each other.

Denny later wrote a 1942 book titled Behind Both Lines. Buckley and Denny were eventually exchanged. Buckley was released to the American Embassy in Rome in May of 1942 and returned to the U.S. via the Drottingham—a Norwegian ship—where he said he ate to his heart's content.

Buckley has lived in Saratoga for the past year and a half, he says, to be closer to his family. He has lived through the automobile becoming "almost the sole means of transportation." He has lived through the lives of his favorite politicians—the 26th U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt, and California Governor and U.S. Senator Hiram Johnson.

He has lived for more than a century.

Buckley was born May 17, 1902, and is rapidly approaching his 102nd birthday.

"It's no achievement," Buckley admits. "You live long enough, and it just happens."

Buckley grew up in the small town of Coalinga, where a major oil field was being developed. Buckley's father owned a boiler company in Coalinga; his mother was a housewife with five children. As an athlete at Coalinga Union High School and in college, Buckley competed in baseball, polo, wrestling, tennis, boxing and soccer, to name a few.

"There's no sport he hasn't played, which is probably why he is still going," says Pope-Handy.

Buckley attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1919 to 1923. Upon his graduation, he was commissioned into the U.S. Army, in the field artillery, where he served for the next 31 years.

When Buckley was a cadet at West Point, the maximum number of students accepted was 1,260. That number has grown to around 4,000 today. As the second oldest living graduate of The Academy, Buckley also attended his 80th class reunion last May. He was the only living graduate from the class of 1923.

One of the downsides of living to 101, Pope-Handy says, is that her grandfather has buried not only his spouse and many friends, but the majority of his children. Pope-Handy visits her grandfather at least two times a week.

"We're a very tight-knit family overall," she says. "He has 15 great-grandchildren and 12 grandkids."

What Buckley is even more proud of, she says, is that everyone in the family went to college, and there are no divorces. Catholic faith, family, ethics and success are highly regarded in the Buckley family tree.

Buckley married Eleanor Fletcher on July 1, 1926, in the Philippines. Buckley still remembers the exact date. They were married for 73¹/2 years.

During their retirement, the happy couple spent much of their time playing golf and enjoying their half-acre of property at the Pasatiempo Golf Club near Santa Cruz. Eleanor died in 1999, just before her 100th birthday. Out of their six children, who all attended Catholic schools growing up, only two are still living, and both are Jesuit priests.

The Rev. Mike Buckley S.J., 72, teaches theology at Boston College in the fall and lives at Santa Clara University's Nobili Hall in the spring, where he conducts research, while acting as his father's primary caregiver. Mike said his dad's longevity in age is a result of his positive outlook on life.

"You have to believe in the importance of life," Mike says. "And you have to find a meaning that transcends yourself. Dad is very strong on that. He's very strong on religion. He's very strong on duty."

The Rev. Tom Buckley S.J., 64, holds multiple degrees, including his doctorate in church history. He's a member of the Graduate Theological Union and teaches American religious history at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. He serves as his father's primary caregiver in the fall.

During his military career, Buckley joined General Lesley McNair's headquarters in Washington, D.C., training the U.S. troops. Buckley was also a member of the first war crimes court that tried the Japanese for atrocities committed against American military prisoners.

After two war trials, Buckley was put in charge of the port at Yokohama, Japan, where his wife and children joined him and lived with him in the late 1940s. From 1950 to 1953, Buckley served in the U.S. Army Department of Research and Development at the Pentagon, before retiring from the service in 1954. He went on to teach mathematics at Santa Clara University until 1967.

Buckley is still sharp and stubborn. He listens to the news via a radio as well as books on tape. He also holds strong opinions about politics, follows the presidential campaigns and disagrees with the war in Iraq. Buckley watched his grand-nephew, Tom Brady, the quarterback of the New England Patriots, lead his team to a narrow victory in this year's Super Bowl.

"The whole Buckley clan is now in reflected glory," says Buckley, chuckling. "But [Tom's] getting all of the fame."

Despite vision and hearing impairments, Buckley watched the game with family members and said he enjoys a regular stream of relatives and visitors at the Saratoga Retirement Community, where he resides.

"I think he's just fascinating," said Roma Rieker, who also lives at the Saratoga Retirement Community. "I have dinner with him occasionally. He has a wonderful sense of humor, and he's still so full of life at 101."

Buckley also cares a great deal about Catholicism and attends church every Sunday at the Saratoga Retirement Community, where his sons alternate saying Mass.

With the assistance of a walker, Buckley wheels himself to meals three times a day, but said with a laugh that he's taken a total of 38 tumbles so far. One secret to living to his age, Buckley says, is a dose of Jack Daniel's—daily.

"I have a highball every night before I go to dinner," says Buckley, grinning.