Jay Coberly has faced many indignities in his 93 years.

He bounced off the roof of a barn and landed in a pig pen after his plane was shot down over Schweinfurt, Germany, in 1943. He lost 30 pounds during two years as a POW at Stalag Luft III, the camp depicted in the movie The Great Escape. He’s dug through trash for food, eaten barley soup with his hands and slept in ankle-deep cow manure.

So Coberly couldn’t help but laugh this week when a hostess at Wolfgang Puck’s Five Sixty restaurant told him and five other war veterans they didn’t look good enough to visit the high-end downtown Dallas eatery -- a rotating dining room atop Reunion Tower, 560 feet above the city.

She said the men’s unit baseball caps, POW T-shirts and shorts did not meet the restaurant’s “business casual” dress code. (See a photo of the men here.)

“I figure if I spent two years in a POW camp, I could have handled the privilege of sitting in that fancy restaurant a few minutes,” said Coberly, a member of the Second Schweinfurt Memorial Association and a bombardier with the decorated 8th Army Air Force, known as the Mighty 8th.

Coberly chuckled at the woman’s prim-and-proper approach.

“We weren’t dressed like hobos. We were just dressed comfortably,” said Coberly, a graduate of the Wharton School of business and a retired hospital administrator from Maryland.

“We’ve been all over the country, and we’ve never had this kind of problem. Dallas must be a first-class town.”

The six veterans -- most in their late 80s or early 90s -- took the rejection in stride as they shuffled back to their tour bus Tuesday. One cracked, “We’re still troublemakers.” Another said, “Just call us the dirty dozen.”

But the men’s wives and children didn’t take the snub so lightly.

They confronted the hostess, reminding her of the military men’s service and sacrifice.

“Do you realize these veterans fought for your freedom and your way of life and you can’t see your way clear to let them up to get a view of the city?” said Michelle Northrop, Coberly’s daughter. “I mean, we weren’t going to be there longer than 45 minutes.”

Northrop said the woman was polite but firm.

“My honest opinion is she was too young to be able to think on her feet,” said Northrop. “She was doing her job, she was professionally dressed and she was not being obnoxious. She was trained well, but this was not an empowered young woman. I’m not sure it ever occurred to her to say, ‘Let me go talk to my manager.’ “

If she had, the veterans would have been admitted to the restaurant without question, said Stephanie Davis, director of communications for the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group.

Everyone involved agreed the hostess made a mistake. What’s in dispute is whether the men identified themselves as veterans.

“If they had explained who they were and what they were doing, it would not have happened,” she said. “It was a mistake and we’re apologetic.”

The restaurant’s general manager, Marcus Cascio, sent the group two bottles of Scotch, a written apology and an invitation to return to the restaurant.

Even Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert got into the action.

He sent each man a letter that concluded, “Again, welcome to Dallas. I’m sure you will enjoy our Southern hospitality.”