99-year-old WWII veteran shocks Amalie with National Anthem

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Listening to WWII Veteran Bob McClintock tell war stories is like stepping into a time machine.

McClintock flew 86 combat missions defending our flag. Thursday night, he sang for it.

The Tampa Bay Lightning invited McClintock to help sing the National Anthem, the crowd, not expecting the 99-year-old to belt out the tune so beautifully.

“When we finished singing, the applause was just downright thunderous,” McClintock said. “That kind of blew my mind.”

The veteran has been singing since he was a child.

"I enjoy singing, it's a great way, for inner-expression,” he said.

He was planning on making a career out of it, being a school teacher and having a band or choir on the side. But the outbreak of war got in the way.

“That interrupted voice lessons,” he said.

Due to a lack of pilots, he became a commissioned pilot at age 23.

"We had 85 percent accuracy with our bombing,” he says of the P-51 jets he flew. “We were known for our ferocious capabilities and strafing. We did front-line support work exclusively, and I enjoyed that because I knew what I was doing was helping directly with the war effort."

These days, his patriotism just carries a different tune.