Jocko Podcast - 311: The Luckiest Man In The World On D-Day. Papa Jake Larson

Episode Date: December 7, 2021

0:00:00 - Opening0:02:51 - Jake Larsen2:06:35 - How to stay on THE PATH.2:40:34 - Closing GratitudeSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocco podcast number 311 with Echo Charles and me Jocco willing. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. June 6, 1944, D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion in history. Almost 7,000 ships and landing vessels, almost 200,000 naval personnel and 150,000 ground troops. attacking the heavily fortified beaches of the Nazi's Atlantic Wall in France. In doing so, Allied forces suffered over 10,000 casualties, including 4,414, killed in action. It was a brutal assault, but the beachhead was secured.

However, the fighting was not over. far from it there was much fighting to be done the fight through the villars bocage the assault on the city of Kane in Sherbourg the battle to seize the village of Saint Low the fight to close the feleys gap the liberation of Paris the advance to the Rhine Operation Market Garden in the Battle of Arnhem battles at more Bruges overloon the Hurtkin forest and all the way to the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes forest the Battle of the Bulge the largest battle fought by Americans in World War II December 1944 through January 1945 included a million Allied troops 500,000 Americans resulted in more than 47,000 wounded over 23,000 missing and 19,000

Killed in action. But in the Battle of the Bulge, once again, victory was achieved. And eventually, victory in Europe was achieved. And then Japan, and that victory was achieved by what is now known as the greatest generation. And it is an absolute honor for us tonight to have one of those men here with us, a man that landed on D-Day and fought all the way. to the Battle of the Bulge. His name is Mr. Jake Larson, also known as Papa Jake, and he is here with us.

Sir, thank you for coming. It is an honor to have you here. Well, it's an honor to be here. Thank you very much for the introduction. I don't think I'm any one special, but of all the people I was with. and I started at a young age when I was 15 I joined the National Guard and I was in Camp Claiborne Louisiana for nearly a year when the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor so I go back a few years and as I look back, every person that I was with in three different units,

Company F, 135th Infantry Regiment, company headquarters company, 135th Infantry Regiment, and Fifth Corps, every person I was with is gone. Why I'm here now. In a few days, I'm going to be 99 years old. 99 years, I can't believe it myself. I don't have aches and pains like other people have. No arthritis, no stiff thing.

I get up out of bed, I'm wide awake. It's crazy. I think my life is governed from above. And I thank those up there who are doing this to me, who are sitting with me right now. I thank him for helping me. Well, sir, you said you don't think you're anything special, which I guess we could argue with that point,

but I'm not here to argue with you, sir. However, you have to admit that you are lucky, and in fact, you did admit it. You have a book that you wrote, which is called The Luckiest Man in the World, and I think you're definitely in the running for it. Well, I appreciate that, but you have to read the book. I can't sit here and start telling you how lucky I am. But even before D-Day, a month before D-Day, if anything was happening that had to do with exercises, I attended firing every kind of weapon because I came from the infantry.

So I was down to land's end. They're shooting 50 caliber air water-cooled machine guns at towed targets. And then the British had this little exercise outslopton sands. And they were going to greet us with live fire. Pretty interesting there. I was one chosen from G3 to go down there, a sergeant, and I was with others from the landing. There was 400 of us on this landing ship.

And this was, we'll get to that part of the story, but what you're talking about, this exercise at Slapton Sands, this was just a preparatory event to get ready for D-Day. and yet where you were doing this training, there was enemy there. There was enemy vessels. There was two e-boats, German e-boats came in there

and sank two of those landing ship tanks right alongside of me and shot up the armed guard on top of the one I was in. And we had no air. We were 400 of us laying there, on the floor, suffering from diesel gas and vomiting. I don't know how we made it back to Plymouth, England. But when we got to Plymouth, a Fulberg Colonel came out, called us to attention,

and swore us to secrecy. We could not even discuss this with our superior officers when we got back. and this I didn't know anything about this or tell anyone about it for 40 years 40 years

the British brought it up and people started calling me a liar because nothing like that ever happened well I was there

I was there it happened to me and I I found out that the 400 of those guys that had sank, there were 795 casualties there. 400 was from the fourth infantry division, which was supposed to land alongside of us. On D-Day, it's unbelievable to think of it now.

no mention of these guys they're all buried over in England and they were put on the record as being lost coming to shore on D-Day crazy crazy

and that's one of the many stories you have in this book and the book is a phenomenal book and I want to I wanted to kind of go back in time a little bit and just talk about where you came from and read a little bit from the book. And I'll skip around so everyone that's out there, you have to get the whole book. I'm only going to read some little pieces of it today. But just wanted to talk to you about some of the things that you talk about in the book.

You say here, my birthday in December 1922 had a huge effect on my life because I was younger than most of my classmates who were born earlier in the year. All this meant, however, was that I learned how to get things done. Now, you grew up with seven brothers and sisters. Yes. You had Todd, Earl, Evan, Leo, Merle, Eleanor, and Bobby. Yeah. And you note in here, you say, I remember asking Leo how I was born. And he told me that a crow shit on a fence post and the son hatched me out.

Whenever I saw a crow, I wondered if it was the one responsible for my birth. Living on a farm, I saw plenty of chickens hatch, so the story made sense to me. So I think your brother Leo had you fooled for a little while. Well, he was 10 years older than me. And when you're five and somebody is 15, you look for somebody that is going to enlighten you. Indeed. So your parents started off on a homestead in South Dakota,

and you talk about that someone here. But then eventually, Grandma Larson, who lived in Hope, Minnesota, wrote to my father and her husband's, after her husband's death, asking if he could move to Hope to run the farm. My parents packed their bags once again and moved to the 240-acre farm. Aunt Bertha got 80 acres, and we got the rest. The downstairs included the living room, along with Paw and Mother's bedrooms and the kitchen, which had a wood stove equipped with burners, an oven, and a 30-gallon reservoir.

You say Paa's bedroom was off the kitchen and mom's room was by the living room. They didn't sleep in the same bed, but managed to have eight kids anyways. And then all the kids' rooms were upstairs. Yeah, yes, yeah. And you went through, I know we're going through a pandemic right now, but you went through the, or your parents began running the farm after the flu pandemic of 1918. And that took my only living grandparent at the time. It was my grandmother,

Grandmother Larson, her husband, my grandfather, died in his 40s. He came in, they said he came in from the barn complaining that he had a pain in his stomach, sharp pain, And they thought a horse kicked him in the stomach. And I was a victim of appendicitis. My oldest brother was a bit. So it was a penicitis that killed him.

It broke. And I went through that same thing. So growing up on the farm, you say life on the farm was not easy. It was plain hard work. Every member of the family had chores. We'd get up at about 6 a.m. Drink hot cocoa, then do chores. Like milking cows, caring feed for the cattle,

cleaning the stalls, adding in the new straw, separating milk and cream. The milk went to the hogs and the cream went to the house. We poured cream into cans, dropping them into the well to keep them cool. We milked 30 to 32 cows by hand every morning and night. I was about six years old when I started milking cows. Yeah. It's a crazy.

life, but we didn't think anything about it. It was our life. And the neighbors were living the same way we were. So it was pretty natural. And we didn't have a lot of extra money for good clothes. If our overhauls got a hole in it from wear or from tear, my mother was an excellent seamstress and sewing machine operator. Everything done with the pedal sewing machine. So you had all that going on, plus you had turkeys, geese, pigs, horses, ducks, and you planted wheat and corn and barley and oats

and alfalfa and soybeans, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, turnips. You had everything going on. We lived out of fruit jars. That was the thing. We lived out of fruit jars. And they were picking tomatoes when my brother Bob climbed up on the windmill. And maybe it could bring that up. Yeah.

Yeah, that's one of the crazy athletes. accidents that you saw when you were growing up. Before we get to that, you had a section in here, and the section, this chapter of the book is called moonshine. And you say, Pa made moonshine long before I was born. He was accommodating people who needed to drink, but had to seek other means of getting it due to prohibition. I helped bottle the moonshine when I was eight.

It was double pure pretty close to 200%, but he used distilled water to cut it down to 85% alcohol. hall. You tell a story in here about the first time you got drunk, which was around age five. Coffee punch. Yes. And it's funny, we're chuckling about it now, but you say in here at one point, it happened. One of dad's so-called so-called friends turned him in, and he got six months in Austin City jail for selling moonshine, though the original sentence was up to two years at Leavenworth Penitentiary.

So your dad ended up going into jail for a while? Six months. Six months celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in the Austin City Jail. And I remember on the way down there, we had a Jewett car sedan. My brother Leo was driving. I was eight years old at that time. And my brother Leo was driving. My mother did not drive, but she was alongside.

And she had a cake, anniversary cake, to take along to my dad. And she said, Leo said, look, ma, we're going a mile a minute now. Wow, that was moving 60 miles an hour. man what an advance from the horse buggy that's amazing uh you you mentioned some of these accidents you know you mentioned the windmill one but it's a whole second you got a whole section in the book of when you're growing up just called accidents you had your sister get get injured by a manure spreader you had a kid that got hit by lightning yeah um you have had one of your brothers hit you in the face with a piece of, you know, they're getting

in some kind of a rock fight. Yeah, a lot of dirt. You guys were using dynamite when you were kids to blow stumps out of the ground. Yeah. Yeah, you talked about in here, so your brother Bobby, there's a windmill out by your house about 60 feet tall. Exactly. 60 foot.

And there's a plank up 45 feet. And Bobby was up there, climbed up there. You're telling him to get down before mom comes home. And, you know, he says, oh, don't worry about it. I'll be down by the time she gets here. And he did. Well. One step.

Again, it's, I guess it's, we're kind of chuckling about it now. But man, in the book here, let me read a little section from the book. They heard him fall, ran over and brought him into the house. carrying him into the kitchen. His eyeballs were out of their sockets on his cheats and blood shot out of his ears whenever his heartbeat. He was out cold. Leo ran to Uncle Charlie's house because he had a phone to call Dr. Erdle, who put his eyeballs

back into their sockets and caught into his ears to slow the bleeding. The doctor said his broken right arm, splitting it with cardboard. I didn't think it could get any worse, but the fall cracked his head, too. The doctor instructed us get ice packs on his head. Elmer Steele had an ice house about a mile from us, so we got the ice from there, and mom packed Bobby's ice head in ice held on with cloth diapers. My mom tied him to the bed so he wouldn't move around, feeding him soup and taking care of him. There's no nurse like a mother.

He was her baby. For what seemed like a month, he lapsed in and out of consciousness until one day he sat up in bed asking, where's Jake? I want to play with Jake. And he was okay. Yeah. He lived tell he was. 75. He caught every disease that was known the man and I worked right by him and took baths in the same tub,

the wash tub as he did. He had the measles. I never got him. I never had a childhood disease until I was 34 years old and I got the mumps from my son bringing them home from school. Yeah, you got some incredible detail about that stuff in the book, too. You ended up going to grammar school. You went to, what is it, Lemon Township? Lehman Township. Le Manson Township. You say you did homework by the kerosene lamplight.

Absolutely. And that's, you're talking about how that lamplight would get dirty. You have to clean it before you start your homework. Oh, yes. The wick would. would cloud the lamp glass. That was a clear glass, the lamp thing. That was, it was better than a candle.

I guess the candles can only get so bright. Carrison lights can get pretty bright. Well, a lot brighter than anything else. We thought nothing of it. We thought it was a modern age. that time. We weren't the only ones. Everybody around, every farmer, and we were just farmers,

everybody lived the same way. They had to go through the same thing. We weren't any different than anyone else. So if you're not any different, you don't know the difference. Now, it sounds like what was normal for you, for you guys, back then was when you got done with kind of grammar school, when you got done with eighth grade, sometimes you didn't continue on with school. You didn't go to high school.

There was no such, anybody going to high school. It was very unusual to that someone to go to high school. And for you, you had Mrs. Jeffrey who sent a note home that said, I recommend that you let Jake go to high school because he's a fast learner. That's it. Oh, do I remember that's like. yesterday. And how'd your dad react to that? My dad says, there's a little high school for you. You've got chores to do. You've got chores to do.

And eventually it was your brother Earl that said, who was 14 years older than me, Earl was. And he was the horseman. We had 30 horses at that time. There was no thing as tractors or anything. Everything was done by horse-drawn machinery. And Earl took care of the horses and shoot them and the doctoring out of them, broke them from wild horses to working in the harness. And he ended up telling your dad that he would help with the work so that you would be able to go to school. He would do my chores for me if I got a chance to go to school. Yes. And he did.

I dedicated part of this book to Earl because I would not be here today if he hadn't done my chores. In the high school that you went to, you had to go and live somewhere else, right? Yeah, 14 miles away. And the roads are not open in the wintertime there. It was all done.

Horses and sleighs, so you can't go 14 miles every day, morning and night, in a sleigh. So you had to stay in town with someone. And then you ended up, in order to pay for your room and board, you ended up pretty much working for one of your friends' moms who had a little place to stay, and you helped out there. Well, one of my lucky breaks again. I couldn't go out for any sports because I had to run home at noon and put the meals on the table. We had eight room and boarders that I helped take care of.

And I started high school when I was 12 years old. I graduated eighth grade at 12 and being born in December. I'm still 12 when I start high school in September. And it's crazy people say, well, whoa. But when you tell people, you're born in 1922. I didn't say, tell them that I only had 11 days in 1922. You know, I was born in December 20th. So I was only 11 days old in 1922.

They called it a full year, pay it mentally. So I got to go to the book here, this section here because it kind of starts off your military career. It says in 1938, I was walking around town on a Saturday afternoon with my cousin Chick. Outside Roxy Theater, we saw a sign Saturday matinee,

Gene Autry, America's number one cowboy. It cost 10 cents, but we didn't have a penny between us. Chick suggested, Jake, let's join the National Guard. They pay $12 every three months. It sounded like a great way to ensure a steady income, but I pointed out, chick, we're 15.

You have to be 18. Chick was a lot taller and heavier set than me. We were like mutton Jeff. He answered, when they ask how old we are, just say 18. The worst they can do is kick us out. They aren't going to arrest us. So we walked into the office at the armory, and I still remember the stocky captain's name, Captain Hugh H. Soper.

He looked up from his desk asking, what can I do for you? Sir, we'd like to join the National Guard. I was expecting him to ask how old we were, and I was ready to say 18. He looked me in the eyes and asked, what year were you born? Wow, I had to think quick. 1922, 1923? 1919, sir. Chick had it easy.

Since he was just standing behind me, he just followed suit and answered the same thing. So, soper stamped out our enlistment papers, and we were in. It was as easy as that, no physical or test required. I joined company F-135th Infantry Regiment of the 34th Infantry Division, the Red Bulls. So you're 15 years old. 15 years old. Did you look young? And no, farmers looked rough.

Okay. So you looked a little bit older. We looked older. And at that time, the National Guard, this is when Hitler was taken to the sedaten land and had just annexed Austria in 1938. So our country was strictly against war, strictly against war. They didn't want anything to do with going to Europe and messing. up with Hitler. Hitler was pretty well known. He wasn't known at that time of all the killings

and labor camps that he had were forced labor. That all came out later. And when stuff like that comes out, it's like it is right now. It is hard to believe. that a person can be that way. So the National Guard was trying to fill its units to get up to full strength so that in case of war, they had the strength in national... The Army was only about 150,000 strong at that time. Army, the whole army in the United States was 150,000.

and that's when President Roosevelt put 28 or 29 National Guard units into Federal Service. That was February 10, 1941. I had just turned 18th in December 20th, 1940. And we're put in the federal service and shipped down Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. So my God, I had nearly a year, and they went through the Louisiana maneuvers, belly up, belly down, and chigger-infested land,

and poisonous snakes. What a place. It was a hellhole. You say in here I learned as much about training for war combat as I did about coping with chiggers, ticks, and intense humidity. Oh, God, it was terrible. It was terrible. And so you left for that February 1941. And so we still weren't out war yet.

No. But you, but the country looked like we were heading in that direction. I know you mentioned in here, one of the, of your friends Carlos. Carlos Boki. Yeah, Carlos Boki. He told me, Jake, let's join the Air Force. I asked him why, and he said the money is better and we'll get to be officers.

I thought that sounded good. At the time, I was a corporal getting $42 a month, while a private earned $30 a month. Carlos and I decided to try and enlist. So we went through the physicals and written tests. The physicals involved an eye exam. Carlos passed his, but they told me I was colorblind. I had no idea. Then I found out my brother Todd was also colorblind.

So you tried to join the Air Force, but you couldn't see colors, they wouldn't let you in, so you stayed in the Army. So I stayed in the Army. And I'm here today. There's another thing, the luckiest man in the world. I turned out to be colorblind, but the Army didn't know that. I had never had a physical for colorblindness. And the Air Corps didn't tell them that I was colorblind. but it's an interesting thing there.

If you want me to relate on Carlos Boki, I will tell you that I am lucky probably that I didn't join the, get into the aviation. Carlos Boki died on his graduate. day in a flyby. Two planes collided and burned. They don't even know which body

is the ship pack to bury. Here I am. He was 19 years old at the time. Here I am. Going on 99 with a family a family grandchildren

great grandchildren can you question why I say I'm the luckiest man in the world no questions from my side of the table sir you so Pearl Harbor happens December 7th

1941 I kind of wanted to portray a little bit of your let's say let's say your rebellious spirit you had a little rebellious spirit when you were younger Colonel Schmidt the 135th infantry commanding officer announced that all the company clerks he had authority over were authorized 15 day furlough so you were going to get 15 days a leave now Captain Erickson Erickson told you hey get everyone set only give people seven days and you told him, sir, everyone will have to turn around and come home before they even get there. And he said, corporal, I'm your commanding officer.

You will do as you are told. And so you do what you're told, except for on your papers, you give yourself 15 days of leave so you can get back home, spend some time and then come back. And he just went through the stack of papers and signed them all. And you took your 15 days. That changed my life. Captain Erickson was killed in a North Africa invasion. The 34th Division went down to North Africa, Morocco or Algeria there, and he was killed down there.

And the company clerk is close to your captain. So, and in the meantime, I got transferred into Fifth Corps. Right. He was trying to punish you by getting you. He was trying to punish me. Moving you away from him. I was going to be climbing poles and stringing wire,

according to Captain Erickson. But then you ended up, you ended up going into the G3, into operations. I was the only operations sergeant. Now, is that because you knew how to type? That's because I was an expert typeer. Where did you learn how to type?

I had one year of typing in high school. As an elective. I was the only boy in a class of 30. It ended up being an extremely important skill for your whole life. It changed my life. Being able to type. You say here, being part of the gene. So G3 for people that don't know, this is operations.

These are people that are coming up with the plans and directing how these operations are going to go. And you say here, man, being a part of G3 was a whole different world. Instead of reporting to a captain or a lieutenant, I had to report to a full bird colonel or a lieutenant colonel. You said once I was part of G3, I met who would become one of my closest friends while in the service. Corporal Madison Rich. He was from New Jersey and was a skilled typist just like myself. You said when I had free time I'd this is by the way this is when you're

I fast forward past this part but this is when you're overseas You're now in Ireland And England and England And you guys are preparing for the invasion You say when I had free time I'd hang out with my other pals Corporal Cray and staff sergeant Robert Jeffrey. Cray was the cockiest Irish men I ever met

While Jeffrey was subdued I was only 19 at the time And they were both much older than me Because of my slight stature They nicknamed me bony ass. Well, I was 5'10, weighed 120 pounds. I,

luckiest man in the world. When I landed on D-Day, we were under a lot of fire. I had two of those MG-42 machine guns shooting at me. And they only shoot 1,200 rounds. A minute, H1, so you're, when you double it, it's quite a thing. But the Germans were not used to shooting that toothpicks, so I made it through. Before you get to D-Day, you have one incident that I just, I had to bring up because it, and is another thing that had a big impact on your life. You were taking some pictures

And there was a major that you were with And you say he had gotten out of his Jeep while he was talking to me So I sat down in the Jeep and handed him my 35 millimeter Argus camera Here major can you take a picture of me sitting in your Jeep What's funny about the picture is that it was the only Jeep I ever sat in while I was in the service I sent that picture along with other pictures to my mother my dad looked through them and picked the picture of me sitting in the Jeep to bring to the photo photo news.

They liked it well enough to put in their paper adding a blurb about Corporal Jake Larson in North Ireland. I was unaware of it at the time but that picture being published

in the paper would lead me to the love of my life and we'll get to that later. At this point now you guys are and again I'm going to fast forward a little bit but now you leave

to go to Portsmouth to start the planning for Portsmouth. Port's mouth. Okay. I'll say it that way. So you guys go to Port's mouth to start the planning. You're promoted to sergeant.

And this is where you participate in that operation or the training operation at Slapton Sands, which you talked about earlier. Just an unbelievable travesty. You go on this training mission. These ships are filled with soldiers to practice D-Day. and the Germans actually sank some of those ships, two of those ships. 795 people killed before D-Day even happened during a training operation. One month before D-Day.

And the Americans that died during that, they reported, they told the families that they died during D-Day. Absolutely. And that brings us to D-Day. and I just want to read some of this and just get your feedback on it. D-Day was supposed to be June 5th, so all the troops were loaded into ships the day before, including me, the sea was getting rougher and rougher, so they called it off and we had to return. They had a British weather master who told Eisenhower there would be a break in the weather in the morning,

so he decided to have the invasion go on June 6th. By the time of the change, I hadn't slept for 72 hours, just running on adrenaline. There are 7,000 ships on the move with 158,000 troops and our destination about 170 miles away. Everywhere you look, there was a ship, and they were going to different beaches. Everything was programmed. I went in with the members of the first infantry division on the USS Ancon, which was the command ship. About eight miles from shore the landing craft pulled up alongside us so we had to climb down rope ladders into the boat carrying 75 pounds of gear and our rifles Then we dropped into the landing craft which was bobbing up and down in three to four foot waves

You know we see images Produced by computers to simulate what it looked like with all those ships on D-Day and That must have been an incredible sight. The most unbelievable thing. It's even hard to describe. How do you describe that one? Every place you look, there's a ship, and behind it, another ship, and behind that, more ships and more ships and more ships.

How do you crowd 7,000 ships into a small area like that? there. And I'm on the Ancon. That's where Eisenhower was on. The commander. Little farm boy from Hope, Minnesota. Only graduated high school. And I'm a sergeant man. I worked on the invasion with Colonel Hill. I got the Bronze Star for what I did, worked on. I didn't even know I was going to get it. But it's crazy. Did you guys, since you were part of the planning,

you must have had very good awareness of what you were going into in terms of the enemy positions. Oh, yes. It seems like you would have known. even more what you were facing than the normal soldiers who maybe weren't as involved in the planning. I was not a normal soldier at that time. I was the highest classified person you can get.

I was top secret bigot, B-I-G-O-T. Most people don't even know what bigot is, but that's the highest rating you can get. Think of it. Little farm boy from Hope, Minnesota. When I told people that afterwards that I was classified top secret bigot, yeah, what's that? You know, it didn't mean anything to them. And this was your first combat operation, was D-Day. Absolutely.

It was the first for all of our troops. What was the fear level for you? There was no fear level. We wanted to, we'd been over to England then for two and a half years. We'd been over there planning this thing. And we wanted to get it done. Get it done. They kept putting it off and putting it off.

And finally when we got to go. So the weather wasn't very good. But in the long run, the weather kind of helped us. It took the Germans off guard. Even Rommel, who was guarding that part, went home to celebrate his wife's birthday. You say here, I was the last one off the ship when they dumped us out too far. We marched off the ramp into the water and all walked in a little.

line. I made my way into the icy water that reached up to my chin, holding my rifle over my head, but I wasn't thinking about the water's temperature. I just wanted to get through it alive. The section of shore I landed on was known as Easy Red. We were supposed to be able to walk through the surf and find bomb holes, which would be shelters for us. The Air Corps totally missed Omaha Beach, so there was no protection for us. Those beaches were all mined. I would find out later in life that there were millions of minds on that beach. If you stepped on one of those babies, it was a quick trip to heaven. I was more afraid of stepping on a mine than being shot at.

I ran toward the cliffs, making sure to step in the same footprints as the man in front of me made. What the hell am I doing here? The thought pounded in my head as I dodged bullets, determined to stay focused on reaching the safety of the cliffs. How did a simple farm boy from Minnesota land on almost? Omaha Beach on D-Day. Machine guns were firing in all directions with bodies everywhere.

Those MG-42 machine guns shot 1,200 to 1,500 rounds per minute. I ran and dodged, finally making my way to a sand berm. The bullets were blasting off the berm as I ducked into it. I wasn't going to get out of that hole no matter what. I smoked at that time, and I had my cigarettes in this plastic bag so they wouldn't get wet. unfortunately I didn't have a match I remember then that I started shaking before that moment I had felt no fear I turned to my left and left and saw a soldier lying down with his back toward me I called out hey buddy do you have a match then I noticed there was no

head underneath the helmet that got me moving Jake move I told myself I got up and dashed for the bottom of the cliff wall about 200 yards away I remember saying to myself, Jake, what the hell are you doing here? You're running for your life so nobody can shoot at you, but everybody can shoot at you. I only weighed 120 pounds soaking wet, so that was an advantage since it's hard to shoot at a toothpick. After what seemed like an eternity, I made it to the cliff wall where I was safe. From what I've read, over 2,500 died at Omaha Beach that day. That was on Easy Red to work where I went in on.

I looked back, I went back to Omaha Beach on the 75th anniversary of D-Day. And I had five different different, TV stations, BBC, France One, France Two, CBS, NBC, waiting at the cemetery of an Omaha Beach cemetery. I have never been in a military cemetery at the time. And they said, we want you to walk out there and look at one of the tombstones. And stand there while we take pictures, I walked out there.

I told you I came in with part of the first division, the 16th Infantry Regiment. And the first tombstone I landed, looked at, said, here this private, from the 16th Infantry Regiment was buried. was buried there. I'm standing there with my hat on and coat. I didn't know, you don't salute, thing. So I raised my right hand with my hat above my head. That picture went viral all over the world. It's like the ghosts of those guys buried there that day were down there watching me.

And when I raised my hat in a salute to them, it was like a response that I got from the guys. After all, I'm not the hero. Those guys that are buried, they're the heroes. I made it true because they put their life up for me. I keep telling people, I am not the hero. I'm a here too, I told you. I changed from hero to here too.

They said, what is a here to? I'm here to tell you the story of my life. And it's unbelievable, but I'm here. because of that. And that's what's got me through life. So when you got to the cliff and now, you're, so I guess you're a little bit out of the enemy fire? Is there still enemy fire coming at you?

They campfire about underneath themselves. Got it. But you still have to push through barbed wire and the guys start getting out the Bangalore torpedoes, right? Yeah. And that was a dangerous one because the guy to shove those Bangalore torpedoes up, two of them were killed right there.

But as quick as they went off, and we started to go up and got behind the Germans, they have no protection. They cleared out fast. So it didn't take long. And then we got to set up, I have periods of total blankness, and this is one of them.

The next thing I knew, we had set up the command post. I don't even remember setting it up. And I was digging a foxhole with Corporal Rich. And that's kind of an interesting thing too. Yeah. Yeah. So you're setting up this command post. You don't remember a lot of it.

And you say, I was relieved to see my good friend, Corporal Madison Rich, who arrived in a different landing craft than I. That right there must have been amazing to see all these guys get killed, and one of your other friends from a different landing craft happens to make it. He stayed in the foxhole next to mine, and I had my litter down in my foxhole. A litter was just a canvas cloth fast in between two removable sticks on either side. I slept on top of it to keep moisture and dampness off my body. We didn't have sleeping bags.

We made our own with wool blankets provided, calling them fart sacks, which by the way, we still called sleeping bags, fart sacks in the military when I was in. Once I found out I had to work that night, I told Corporal Rich, you can sleep in my foxhole tonight. I've got the litter in there. Thanks, Jake. I got my fart sack all made up now. I'm not changing it. Nevertheless, he laid his M1 rifle on my litter and went to sleep. That night the Germans wanted to see what we were up to, so they sent over reconnaissance planes, dropping flares to take pictures after midnight.

They lit up the beach like daylight. Our anti-aircraft started shooting up at those planes. Well, what goes up must come down, so when Maddie Rich got up in the morning, he went to pick up his rifle in my foxhole, only for it to fall in two pieces. The shrapnel from our men shooting at the Germans had hit his rifle during the night. Talk about luck. they had called on me to work that night and he's fortunate he didn't take me up on my offer of sleeping there.

So there you go. It seems like it's a story of my life to be in the right place at the right time. Yeah, so in your bed where you were going to sleep that night, the rifle that was sitting on your bed was snapped in half. It fell in two, yeah.

If you ever saw M1 grand, that's a pretty hefty gun. Pretty hefty rifle. It weighs eight pounds. So it had to take some kind of a direct hit to be able to fall in two. And during this time, you're supposed to be. working during the day and then getting some sleep at night. But what's happening for these first five, six, seven days, you're working during the day, and then at night you all have to move.

So you're not getting any sleep at all. Well, I'm, I, the action all took place during the day. Very little action during the night. So when I'd try to sleep, during the day, the Germans would shell us. I was right at St. Lothen was the place we were trying to capture. They told us it was going to take a few days to capture.

Took us a month. Took us a month. Germans don't like to give up. And they are great fighters. Man, we had our hands full. But we covered a book on this podcast called The Clay Pigeons of St. Low by Glover Johns, who was one of the officers that fought there. And so you were there for that.

You say about a month after D-Day, we were supposed to capture a little town called St. Lowe. We moved from the cliffs to the hedgerodes of the town. We planned to capture it without delay, but it took us about a month because the Germans put up such stiff resistance. We put out orders and then different units under our... command carried them out. At that time, other infantry units had landed on D-Day with us, and those troops were under our control. We would storm them or open fire. Civilians didn't count. They didn't factor into the equation. You have to take that position in war. If they're in the

way or on the road, you just rush them off. That's why so many civilians were killed during the war. We tore the hell out of St. Lowe. I spent most of my time during the daylight thinking of getting some sleep, but again, we were always on the move. We were captured, after we captured St. Lowe, I went to bed in the morning and woke up at 2 a.m. unable to remember how I got there. I had been numb thinking only of sleep, sleep, sleep. Each soldier carries a tent shell, half tent shell. So I put my shelter half in a ditch and there was three feet high next to the road. If you don't have another soldier with you, you have to make do with you half a tent.

I was thinking about brushing my teeth and shaving. I noticed another soldier walking around carrying. something. I took the liner out of my helmet and poured some water into it so I could brush my teeth and was just about to shave when one of the soldiers asked hey, what the hell are you doing here? I explained him going to shave. I work at night. I just woke up.

He said this is supposed to be all clear. There's a 155 millimeter shell laying on the road and where sandbagging hit to detonate it. So there you were going to brush your teeth and there's an unexploded shell. You happen to run

into these guys. Not any farther away than you and I sitting right now. I don't think if that thing went off, I don't think even the luck would get you through that one. No, no. Not the 155. My luck held, though. Your luck held.

Here's another one. Another piece of evidence for the luckiest man in the world. Colonel Hill asked me what I was doing. I said I was thinking about getting something to eat. He said, I got a Jeep coming up. From the motor pool and I'll tip I'd like to you to ride along with it to look at our next command post to check it out For Colonel Hill I would do anything the guy saved my save my life a few times by putting me in charge of the night shift I responded gladly sir we had a hand drawn map of the area

A private drove the Jeep as I looked at the map suddenly I realized we missed the turn off So I said to the private I think we missed the turn off it was there was a ditch there the culvert indicated the roads entrance So just as he got the Jeep turned around, another Jeep turned down that road, hit a landmine, and blew up. That was the place we were supposed to turn. Somebody was looking out for me, I swear. We went back to Colonel Hill reporting the incident. He uttered, you're like a cat with nine lives. You're using up some of those nine lives in these events.

Didn't get a scratch. Didn't get the sky. I came to the Battle of the Bulls, and I was one of the first ones after the Battle of the Bulls. Think of it. I'm one of the first ones to get leave to come home before the war is over. 45 days.

Unbelievable, lucky. But I had a, it was unbearable. the points system. Right. And I had 127 points. And you were at the top of the list. I was at the top of the list. Because the points were based on how long you've been there.

Oh, you've been in the service and how long overseas? Yeah. Yeah. And before you even get to the Battle of the Bulls, shortly after that, we moved through a narrow valley called the Falays gap. Falaise gap, where we had a German army partially trapped. The English came in from the west while we came in from the southeast. Part of Patton's troops was there.

Plus the five corps. We captured 50,000 German soldiers and killed nearly that many. We bombarded them from three sides. When we got there, the shooting was over. That's the first time I ever walked over dead people and around dead horses. When we landed on Omaha Beach, I had never stepped over any of our soldiers. That's like stepping on your brother. I didn't get the same feeling walking over the enemy.

What was the feeling about Patton? Did you guys all know who was he as legendary back then for you guys? Well, Patton, First Army was the one that landed on the day, first Army. and Fifth Corps and Seventh Corps were the two corps under First Army. Now, Fifth Corps had Omaha Beach, all of Omaha Beach. I was the only operation sergeant in Fifth Corps, G3. So think of it. This little farm boy from Hope, Minnesota,

minuscule, please, 100 occupants there. Farmers was in charge of that every night. Think of that. How is that possible? Because Earl volunteered to do my chores for me, and I got a, I took typing one one year. It's crazy. when you look back at it. It's plain crazy. It's hard for me to understand how it's hard for me to be here.

I'm going to be turning 99. I cannot believe that I am here. I'm the only one left of all the people I was in the service with. There's nobody else that I was in with alive. And sitting here, going to be 99, without an acre or a pain in my body, how is that possible? There's got to be an answer somehow. And I say, there is a God. That's my favorite saying. There is a God. And he certainly looks out for you, that's for sure. He's been taken care of me, great. The next thing that you did was the capture of Paris, the liberation of Paris. What was that like?

There was another thing. The free French, when we came in, the Germans had gave up. The generals had called it. off. He wasn't fight back. But the free French came in there and while the Germans were evacuating, they came in there and threw those Molotov cocktails into their trucks and everything. But if you'd have been treated like the French were treated for four years, I have a different view, see, when I'm coming in. I wasn't subjected to any of the Germans or anything.

We were there just to fight them. So it was kind of hard for me to realize that these people suffered. There were thousands and thousands of them who were drafted and put into the army with the Germans. Being an American and with the liberties that we have, it's hard to transform your opinions. When you're being killed and shot out and abused, I just don't know how to put it

And you as a farm boy from Hope, Minnesota, ended up having a pretty nice office once you got in the pan. General Marshall Paton's office. How did things like this happen? It's crazy. So Marshall Paton was the... was the guy in charge of the Vicky French? Yeah, the Vichy.

The Vichy French. He was the one that led the French through the First World War. Right. And I sat at his desk, and it was loaded with medals of all kinds. Now, the French gave me the Legion of Honor. In 2014, they announced that I would have the Legion of Honor. And in 2015, February, we went to San Francisco to the French, where their officials were. and there was 10 of us that sat there and we were each percent with the Legion of Honor.

Besides the Legion of Honor, I was the only one to receive the French retired soldier badge. I'm an honorary French retired soldier. Not that little red, white, and blue one right there. It's one of the, I'm proud of that, beyond being proud, I'm mostly proud to be American, but the French recognized that I had been working for them and gave me that along with the Legion of Honor. I don't know of any other soldier in the American Army that has to receive that, honorary French soldier.

That's definitely an honor. And even as, you know, you say the Germans kind of gave up Paris, but it wasn't over yet. Yeah. And you had even more close calls. You say this here. After we moved out of Paris, we ended up in Luxembourg. Since I work nights, after I'd get some rest during the day, I'd have some free time to walk on the cobblestone streets.

We were in a valley, and I came to an intersection at the foot of a hill. I had just started crossing the road when an English Spitfire and a German Messerschmitt right on its tail shot over the hill, the Messerschmitt firing its cannon at the Spitfire. When they came down the hill, the cannon shot right in front of me, shattering the cobblestones into pieces. I landed on my face in the cobblestones

and got the hell out of there. Once again, it was unbelievable how lucky I was. I say this, close only counts in horseshoe and grenades. You mentioned the battle to bulge earlier On December 16th at 2 in the morning, I was on duty when a corporal drove up to the command post, came in and reported. He was so excited that he saluted me, a staff sergeant. He declared, I'm at guard post number six.

And, of course, we got out the operations map so I could see right where he was just south of Mon Shaw. Manshue? Not Man Shaw. He told me that the German paratroopers were coming down. I asked when you saw them coming down, what did you do? I got in the Jeep and came right here. so that was the beginning of the battle of the that was the beginning

and the Germans put had had POWs American POWs took their uniforms and then went out into this area and started changing the road signs and doing they were spying and stuff and you talked about the fact that if you caught those people

when those people were caught they were shot no trial was necessary for those men since imitating killed on the spot killed on the spot and then the German tanks started to roll through

Melbourne they lined up all these guys that were artillery observers that caught I think 180 of our our guys were caught there and lined up in the ditch with their hands over their head.

And it was snowing at the time when the German tanks rolled by. Colonel Pfeiffer, who led the Germans at that time, ordered those tanks to fire their machine guns at these guys in the ditch. that's called the Malbany Massacre. Now, did you hear, how long did it take for you to hear about that? Oh, about an hour. About an hour. That word got back fast.

We were cut off from the first army when they went through there. And we ended up being part of. General Montgomery's 21st Army group. And talk about luck. Patton was, they ordered to get help from Patton from the Third Army. That was a long ways away. But by the time Patton got there, Montgomery, we were a part of Montgomery's, 21st Army Group

Think We're the Fifth Corps was the only one That was part of Patent's Patton's 21st Army And We had the first

29th, I think Or 29th or 28th division Either one One of those others at the time There just slipped My mind Mine is pretty full of stuff But I can't tell you for sure which one

But anyway We put the squeeze on the Germans From two sides They had nowhere to go Except drop their weapons and march out And they ran out of fuel too in their tanks They left all their vehicles right there They walked out

I was reading some history about this And I guess six different occasions This was this was Hitler's plan Was to push into you know to push push push and Yep to push through there And six times his generals objected to the plan and said This isn't a good idea we shouldn't do this And six times he said no we're doing it anyways

Not listening he was not listening to his his subordinates He tried to push back. Did he ever? No. He just fired him. Yeah. So as they push back and that battle, the battle to bulge lasted almost a month and a half, something like that? Well, I got out of there December 31st.

Okay. That's when I got a 45 days leave. I'll tell you the story of that. December 31st. Colonel Hill called me in and said, I got a furlough for you. You're gonna go home for 45 days. And oh my God, I couldn't believe it.

I had rifles and stuff under Colonel Hill's bed. He had this truck that his bed and everything was in that. And it was a good place to store stuff, so he didn't mind sleeping over it. But I left that stuff over there. When I was going just on furlough, see, I thought I'd be back to pick that up. So it took me 51 days to get home. And part of that was transporting wounded, right? Oh, yeah, from La Havre, yeah, from La Havre to Portsmouth, I think two or three shiploads of wounded.

So as you tried to leave, there's like we mentioned, like I mentioned earlier, there was 47,000 wounded during the battle to bulge. So instead of the ships being able to take people home on furlough, you ended up on these ships getting people transported where, back to England? Yeah, to Portsmouth, England. Portsmouth, England, that's where we'd stop and unload the ships again. and then go back and get another load, see. And here I'm supposed to be headed across the Atlantic. And but think of this. When I do get home, when I do get home

and spend my 45 days at home, I go up to Fort Snelling and a captain calls me in. He says, Sergeant, 10 minutes ago, I got a call from the Pentagon, and they told me that they let me, I could stay home or go back to Germany. My God, after three years over there, there's no way I'm going back to Germany.

So all the relics that I had on their Colonel Hills bed, they were giving up, don't know what happened, and I don't miss one of them. So that's, as you get home, I can't even imagine. going from that many months of direct combat and just getting on a ship, getting back to America. What was it like when you got home, especially before you found out that you were going to get to stay home? Oh, my mother was dying from a heart to seize called leakage of the heart. It was a valve in there. And I never thought I'd see her. anymore. But she was still living. And she lived for five years after that. She saw her grandchildren,

two of her grandchildren at that time. And I say there is a God. But two weeks after my mother passed away, Dr. Hofnegle in Washington, D.C., invented its valve that would have cured her. But you can't turn back time. It's like crying over spilt milk, say. You can't pick it up. It's done.

So was there anything else about the war when you were there, like on a day-to-day basis? How did you handle that? How did you face, you know, you said when you were going to D-Day, you weren't really afraid. Then once you were getting shot at behind this bird. I asked what the hell I'm doing here. Right. If you're in that position, you want to be able to fight. back. Well, there's no way you can fight back. They're protected from fire and you have

to know exactly where they are, what little hole they're shooting out of. And it's pretty hard to determine when you're running for your life and dodging. It's a circumstance you don't ever want to be in. But you're not the only one. Mind you, you've got all the guys around you that are doing the same thing. And some of them being shot, and that'll spur you on a little bit too. When somebody gets shot, puts a little bit impus in you. But, yeah.

So when you get back, and now you find out, that they're going to discharge you. You're done with the army. You're done with the army. You say that here. You say, I was done. That was April 13th, 1945, and the war ended in May. I was just 22 years old with seven years of soldiering under my belt.

It's crazy when you think about that. So that's it. The war's over for you. And now it's, you start off by going back. to farm life, right? Yeah. I've started helping my dad by rebuilding the hog shed, cementing and everything. And then I started to think I'm going to have to have some kind of occupation. They don't like, they don't care about hiring somebody for just shooting people, you know. enrolled in Dunwoody Institute.

I took training in electricity, radio, TV, anything to have to do with electricity. I did. In fact, after I got out of there, I had my own service station for a while. And man, having a service station, making a centigown. And when they rebuild the highway alongside of you

and no one can get in there except from the back streets, and they said they were going to dump 30,000 gallons on me a month. I told them where to shove that service station. And I went and got a job in Austin, Minnesota, as a lineman climbing poles, the string and wire. I did that for four years. I'm a journeyman lineman. I got an adjournment license.

So Captain Erickson finally got his wish of you being up in the up on the pole stringing wires. That's a hard job. And meanwhile, you also met Lola. Oh, God, yes. I fell in love. You said you were going out in September, 1945, soon thereafter. We were going out every night.

In October, I got an engagement. and asked her to marry me. It seemed rapid to me, but I was infatuated. October went by, then November came along, and I told Lola that it was killing me and that we had to do in something about it. We arranged to have a wedding at the Lutheran Church in Austin where my sister Pegg and my brother-in-law lived.

November 23rd, simple wedding. She moved in, and she and I slept in a closet on a bed no wider than a couch. It worked out great for a while. And plus, we're lucky you don't take up much room. Yeah. You say this. When I came home from the service, I had the shakes, but nobody visited doctors for post-traumatic stress disorder back then.

I woke up one night and I was choking Lola. So we got separate beds. She realized what I had gone through. She was there for me 100%. I had to learn how to drink coffee with my left hand because my right hand shook so much. I started taking, what is that, propranol? Propanol.

Propanol. For that and still take it to this day. So there's definitely, even though you came home from the war, the war was kind of still going on in some ways. None of World War II veterans had medical help like that. In fact, when I went to get medical help, I had, I got 11 stints in me. 11.

In your heart? Well, around my heart. Okay. I was feeling faint and went down to the hospital and they were checking me out and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me and they wanted to keep me over another. night. There is a God. So I kept me in the hospital and hooked me up to every kind of a thing that wires all over me. The next morning I woke up in a neighboring hospital instead of Walnut Creek Kaiser, I woke up in Mount Diablo.

and conquered 25 miles away at 2 o'clock in the morning. That alarm went off. I had cardiac arrest. That means I was dead for a while. But you were hooked up to a machine. Machine. And they got to work on you immediately. And got me.

Oh, my. Crazy. You tell the story in here. I mentioned that the picture earlier that the major took of you while you were sitting in the Jeep. And that picture got published in the newspaper. And then you say this. One day I came home from work finding Lola changing her wallet. She had all the remains of her old wallet dispersed across the table.

I walked by thinking nothing of it until something caught my eye. I noticed a picture of a young soldier sitting inside an army jeep. But that wasn't just any soldier. That was me. She had the picture of me in her wallet from years ago when I was in Major Ridgeways Jeep, the one that was in the local paper. I asked her, where did you get that picture?

And she told me that she cut it out of the paper and put it in her wallet. I said, you didn't even know me. She said, no, but I met your brother, Bob, and he was talking about you. At the time, she was a sophomore going to high school. Her family had just moved two farms north of us near hope. I never met her or her family and didn't even know she existed. While she was in high

school, one of her girlfriends questioned her for keeping the photo and asked, who's the guy in this picture? She announced, that is the guy I am going to marry. How can you make up something like that? My life is unbelievable up until then. And it keeps on being unbelievable. So you have your first son, Kurt, in 1948. You end up with that lineman job. You have your second child, Linda. And then you go, you become a TV radio repairman after you do the service station. You end up moving to California.

When you get to California, you're doing, you're working for Sears as a TV repairman for $2.35 an hour. your brother-in-law has a print shop up in northern California he offers you a hefty raise up to $3.42 an hour and so you go up there and do that you you end up also doing TV repair on the side working with you know replacing people's tubes and whatnot so now it's years go by and and you say this while working for my brother-in-law I'd come home about 3.30 or 4 every day and then worked fixing televisions. One particular day I'll never forget. I came home from the print shop

and Lola met me at the door. I said, hi, hon. Don't hon me, you son of a gun. She put it in a son of a bitch. And you say, wow, that shook me up. What's the problem, honey? The problem is I'm pregnant, you son of a bitch. Yeah.

Pregnant, you had better get the doctor to make sure. Well, the reason she was, because this is, what, 10 years after your last kid? Ten years, exactly, ten years. So that's, you end up having another baby. Yeah. And there is a God. You work at Jonas printing.

You work at Harrington, McGinnis printing for a while. You end up getting a house. Here's a conversation. In 1990, we were still living in Pleasant Hill, California. as usual, it went to, I still went to the flea market every Sunday in January. Carlin found me and said, mom wants to talk to you. Lola was sitting in the car with the first word out of her mouth I knew I didn't have a chance. I knew I was screwed.

She looked at me and said, father, I found my dream house. Father, that melted me. So, what do you mean by dream house? A house we can live in with my two sons and their families. I want you to come look at it. all I could think was, man, this is going to cost me a lot. So you say the place was going to take a lot of work, so it seemed ridiculous to me to buy a new home when I was in my late 60s

because I didn't know how long I'd be living. But you end up buying the house. Lola moved into the house in Martinez during the construction renovations, followed by Carlin and Kim, then Kurt. Linda wasn't interested in moving in because she, already had a home with her husband and family. I lived in Pleasant Hill while our house was up for sale. The housing market was slow at the time because the interest great was at 12%.

While I stayed at Pleasant Hill, the house in Martinez really came together. All of Lola's ideas coming to life. I was starting to see what she saw in that house. So you end up with a compound for the family. Yes. And it kept me alive. I have another incident where... I couldn't get out of bed in the morning.

The alarm went off, a radio alarm. Just the radio came on loud. And I'm laying there thinking like right here, right now, as sharp as my mind was as sharp as it is right now, but I couldn't move a muscle. I had a telephone right alongside of me. to call my kids. I couldn't move.

And I said, what the hell am I going to do now? Your bladder starts talking to you. Get me to the bathroom. Or you're going to be sorry. And the next thing I knew, my oldest son came down from upstairs. And he says, the radio was going. he says,

Dad, have you got a problem? Kurt, I can't move. I got to get to the bathroom. He says, I'll go get the carlund. So when they started moving me, I passed out. The next thing I knew, I woke up in Kaiser Walther Creek.

I had a stroke. And they said, if I'd have been any later, it would have affected me. Right now I have a little kind of a, well, my left side, I got my left hand. It's wrinkled in there. and my left foot, I kind of dragged my left foot. But there is a God, I'll tell you that. Does it let me, my mind complete.

So while you were living in Pleasant Hill, you got a call. One day, Lola called me and said, Father, I want you to come down there and stay with you. I want to come down there and stay with you. Go to ward to get a rollaway bed. God, I hate to even talk about that day. She said I'm losing too much weight because I miss your cooking. I asked how much weight she lost.

I lost 40 pounds last month. 40 pounds. You say they found out she had stomach cancer. Don't worry, Dad, Linda said they're going to operate. They think they can get it all. They might have to take some of her stomach out, but she can live a normal life. She would have to eat less, but more often.

I just wanted anything and everything done for her to keep going. The doctors opened her up, discovering that it did spread to her intestines. They gave her six weeks to live, but she lived a little longer than expected. Curt and Carlin fixed up the room in the house that looked towards Mount Diablo so she could look out the window and enjoy the view. One of the last things she saw was that view. It's a beautiful sight. A day doesn't go by when I don't think of her knowing that she's guiding me.

She wrote a poem about me. I never was much on poetry, but Lola loved to write. She titled the poem One of the Lucky. My husband was one of many, a Second World War volunteer, who left home to go serve his country, this land that we all love so dear. He never complained He was lonesome Surrounded by enemy guns

The letters he wrote home were cheerful Like the battle was only fun In his foxhole there Death sat beside him With shells whistling over his head He tried to remember his childhood Tucked safely away in his bed His buddies they fell by the dozen

On the beach their lives ebbing away In my heart I think God had watched over him when he made it to cover that day. Time and again, he was lucky. He still ran when his best buddies fell, a dodging and jumping and dying in this man-made inferno to hell. But the day came when his nerves had shattered, and the general so plainly could see.

This boy should no longer see battle. So they sent him home safely to me. Yeah. Beautiful poem. Shakes me up. Shakes me up. Well, you, you were very lucky not just to avoid machine guns and bombs and everything else. You were also very lucky that you met your beautiful wife and you were able to spend so much time with her.

I tell you, somebody up there likes me. I can't fear it out. Somebody must like me or like the way I do things. Even after Lola died, you kept working. And then finally in 1995, when you were 73, your boys said, Dad, we don't want you to work anymore. You retired after working for 19 years at Harrington. McGinnis.

But then you still kept a schedule. So how old were you when you retired? Oh, 73. But you'd run errands and cook for the family, taking the kids all over the place to different schools and stuff. You had to stay focused, had a new mission. I had a new responsibility in life. I had a grand dog.

who was three when I was 73 and I became the sole raiser of her. She's a dancer on a cruise ship now, dancer singer. And she is the one responsible for putting me on TikTok. I would not be here right now. She's mostly responsible for this book. It's unbelievable. It is unbelievable. Luckily, you're sitting here to see that it is believable.

Yes. It's crazy, crazy. You know, a little earlier in the book, you were talking about having the shakes in your hand. And you say, I came out of World War II with the shakes in my right arm. I couldn't pick up a cup of coffee without shaking without my hand shaking

so I learned a drink with my left hand I took medication for it but it didn't alleviate it completely and then one time you fell down and when you fell down you went to the hospital you were knocked out you went to the hospital you got 30 stitches 30 stitches in your head

and the side of my head and 29 stitches in your right hand you went to got a bunch of MRIs and whatnot before you went in the MRI machine, I got to read this part. He said, I got down to the MRI room and the guy who was operating the MRI machine said, I have to ask you a few questions before I put you in the machine. I replied, go right ahead.

You asked me a series of questions, like what year is it, et cetera? Then he asked, are you pregnant? I answered, I've been screwed so many times I ought to be. Well, the MRI came back without any problems. but the shake went away after 70 years. No, no, we're sitting here. I want you to look at this. I could be an eye doctor.

Absolutely. Think of it. I couldn't hold a cup of coffee in that hand before I fell on my left side. And left side, right hand. It correlates. It's a miracle. I am a miracle itself. It's crazy.

And so then you end up getting cataract surgery. You've been colorblind your whole life. And what happens after cataract surgery? I get my color vision back on Easter Sunday. It's Easter Sunday. Crazy. So you can see color now. I see color now.

You are colorblind your whole life. You see all these colors? I can't tell you what color that is, but it's kind of an orangey red. Yes, it is. And that's a blue in this. But I see all these colors. I don't know the names of them

because I was brought up without. color. Unbelievable. It's crazy. And you know, you mentioned earlier going over, having the opportunity to go to the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Part of that was because of a donations on a Go-FundMe to get you sent over there. That's a very interesting thing.

Because all my service records, were burned up in Kentucky in 1973. The L's and the M's were burned up. So I don't know if I put this in about the one metal that I did get, the Bronze Star. Earl Heaps was a newcomer to the bagel shop, group and he was a sergeant in Korea and he says you ever get any medals Jake yeah I said I got the Bronze Star he says bring it in I've never seen the Bronze Star we had just moved from

Pleasant Hill into our home in Martinez. So I looked for that bronze star. I could not find it. I looked every place. Where would I? My God, what happened to that thing? Then my daughter said, Linda, says, Dad, don't worry about it. I'll just write to the Army and have it replaced. I said, you can do that? Oh, yeah, they'll replace it for you. So I went up and told Earl Heaps that I couldn't find it, that they were going to replace it.

A month later, Linda came to me and says, Dad, they don't know anything about your Bronze Star. all your records were burned in Kentucky and they don't even know if you served in the service man that's a shaker up her and so I tried to find out and man I'm a GI three years overseas

I don't even have have VA help for a doctorate or anything. And it's probably a damn good thing because I'm still alive. I don't think they would give it 11 cents to me in the VA. Oh, man. But they ended up raising money for you. And you found your Bronze Star. I found,

it's in the book. You found your Bronze Star. I got to tell you about. this. When I went back and told Earl Heaps that my bronzer was lost and they told me we don't even know if you served in the service. And Earl Heaps says, well, then we don't have to believe a damn thing you've told you. You've been telling us, man, that's a stabber. But you did find the Bronx. Oh, we found the bronze. In an old ammo can or something. In an ammunition box, and here's the irony to think, it was some 40-caliber ammunition.

And I asked who wanted that ammunition. I didn't want that around. I had some handguns that fit. And I've got too many grandchildren. children. So Earl Heaps says, I'll take it. I've got some here. Earl Heaps, the one who told me, we don't have to believe a damn thing you told us. I opened that ammunition box and there that Bronze Star was laying in the box right on top. I don't remember putting it on in there. and no one else did too.

But when I could produce the Brown Star, Earl had to eat his words. He had to eat his words. Did I say love? Yeah. Yeah, he did. So you raise the money. You end up going to Normandy,

and you talked about this, but I just want to read this section because it's so moving. You say we drove straight from Paris to Normandy to the American Cemetery. The first grave I saw was a private from the First Infantry Division. That choked me up because I went in on D-Day with members of the First Infantry Division, and now I was looking down at his grave 75 years later. It's kind of a weird feeling.

I made it, and he didn't. Look at the family I have while he has nothing. War is so unfair. I took off my hat thanking him for people. paving the way for me. I teared up and walked away. I never realized the cemetery had over 9,000 Americans. I was never one for visiting cemeteries.

There are souls still hanging around, but this visit was different. I owed it to those who had been killed to pay my respects. And as you mentioned earlier, you ended up doing a bunch of interviews for French TV and CBS. I want to add two, one that you'll never hear anybody else say. From Russia, from Moscow. A young girl came up to me after the five other ones were done. She came up and said, I'm from Moscow, Russia. And I'd like to interview you.

Perfect English. I've never heard that. Anyone being interviewed from anybody from Russia. It's crazy. You also went back to Omaha Beach itself. And you say here, I returned to a section of Omaha Beach where I walked on the sand for the first time in 75 years with my family in news groups.

I found that burl. I was, I tell you, it's hard for me to talk about it. You can't imagine what we'll go through the memories that come back to you. And here I'm standing there with my son, my two sons. Because you ended up.

up seeing a berm that was basically exactly what you had hit behind it. It's like it was recreated for me. How is that possible? They had a big ceremony. You took the president's hand at the ceremony. Yeah, President Trump's hand. Did a bunch more interviews and you say this, the D-Day anniversary trip was the trip of a lifetime that I will never forget. What a moving memory surpassing D-Day in my mind. There was no killing, and we were celebrating. It was the epitome of my life. I'm so grateful for all the people who came together in order for me to make it back there.

I never in my life thought I would return to that beach, but I'm glad that I did. I did not return for myself, but instead from my fellow soldiers who did not make it. And all those interviews that you did, you know, the word spread, you ended up hearing from Corporal Madison Rich. You ended up hearing from his kids. About the gun incident breaking into, man, he told his children about that. I didn't. I never had much contact. We were working when we got on us.

service. We didn't have time for messing around, talking about what we did in a service. But after he passed away, his wife contacted me. And I kept in contact with her for the years, and then she passed away. And man, all of you. of a sudden I'm over in Europe. I'm in Europe celebrating the 75th anniversary of D-Day. And in New York, a man there is listening. Jake Larson they're talking about. Jake Larson. So he calls his brother in New Jersey. He says, Frank, are you watching that thing about D-Day, the 75th anniversary of D? Yeah, he says, I am. I wonder if that Jake Larson they're talking about. It's the same one dad used to talk about

when the rifle broke into and he laid his rifle on the thing. So they got a hold of my youngest son, Carlin. He's kind of takes care of all my. appointments and things. And they called him. And so, hey, I wonder if that, Dick Larson is the same guy that my dad was talking about. And Carlson said, well, what's your dad's name? He says, Madison Rich. Carl said, that's the same one.

I personally got in contact. Those two girls and two boys of Madison Rich contacted me. We talked on the phone face to face. And the oldest boy came down and saw me personally. What a wonderful thing. What a wonderful thing. Madison Rich did not make 70 years old. My God, I worked until I was 73.

and here I said going on 99. There's something wrong in the equation how one person could do these things. I need help. Why am I still here? How come I don't have aches or pains like anybody else? Life is crazy. Thank you, God.

Yeah, and there is somebody that somebody, I guess if you look at the world, there's got to be somebody that actually is the luckiest man in the world. That's the name of the book. I think we're finding out it's nonfiction. It certainly is a nonfiction. And I'm not a writer. I'm just telling you stories of my life, the way they come up. I don't have big words.

You don't see anything big in there, but it's the way I talk. That's the only way I know how to write. I'm not right to impress anybody with my verbiage. The stories themselves are impressive enough. The verbiage is secondary. The stories are amazing in here. Yeah. Another thing that you did was take an honor flight.

And the honor flight is a nonprofit organization, great people. And they provide their mission is to provide veterans with honor and closure. And so they fly veterans to Washington, D.C. to see the war memorials. And your name came up on there. And so you ended up going to Washington, D.C., thanks to the private donations to the honor flight organization, which is a great organization, like I said.

And you said this when you got there. I was ticked off because they took so long to complete the World War II Memorial, only opening in 2004. By that time, most of the men from the war were gone and would never have the chance to see it. Carlin convinced me that I should go in their memory, so that's why I went.

The irony is that the 135th Infer, which is part of the 34th division has a shield that says to the last man I was 15 years old the first time I saw that well they are all gone except me who would ever imagine that I would actually be the last man I got that shield right here on my jacket and then came the Battle of the Bulge 75th anniversary and there's a guy named Mitch Mendler Firefighter Paramedic here right here in San Diego As a matter of fact

Yeah I was with him last night And he's the president of a non-profit organization Called World Memorials And doing great work with that And they volunteered to sponsor you To get you out to the 75th anniversary

Of the Battle of the Bulch And you say here when we went to the airport, flew down to Los Angeles, I was met at the gate by my sponsor group who introduced me to two of the men entrusted to travel with me. Colonel Mike Droll of the Arizona Rangers and Rick Cochran, the executive director

Hispanic Medal of Honor. Joshua Kaufman, a Holocaust survivor who survived five concentration camps, was amongst the group. When U.S. troops liberated him at the age of 16, he weighed a mere 55 pounds. His daughter interpreted it for him in Yiddish, informing him that I was going back for D-Day.

When she communicated that I was the only one left in my company, he, Joshua Kaufman, got down on his hands and knees and kissed my feet. That choked me up. He got up and grabbed my hand and said, love you and squeezed my hand. We were both crying. That's some incredible, you know, they mentioned closure, actually meeting an individual

that had been in the concentration camps and was liberated by Americans such as yourself. That's amazing. They did only seven years difference in our life. I was 22 when that. happen you know I've I've read a bunch of this book so far tonight and I know we've been talking for a while but I wanted to close the book out with this this last section that I'll read and again if there's so much more in this book I've only

cut covered a couple of the highlights but there's it was hard to even select which highlights to cover because it's all just incredible stories but I wanted to close with this quote here it says it's mind-boggling to have someone kiss your feet in thanks for what those soldiers did. I am not the one to be kissed. I'm representing all the guys who freed all the concentration camp victims. It was their actions. I'm not a hero. I'm here too. I'm here to tell you what I went through. All these people are gone and I'm left alone. I can't see where I deserve the credit for that. I'm the last one alive to represent these guys that gave their lives over there so I could relate, relate this story to everyone.

And again, the story is incredible. You lived it, and you're sitting across the table for me, and you even realize how incredible and almost unbelievable it is, and you are doing an outstanding job carrying on and passing on the story of your brothers, your comrades in arms. They're the heroes. They're the heroes. And so you're carrying on that story? And that's not the end of the story, by the way, because like you said earlier, you're

very popular on social media. You're a TikTok star. You're on Instagram. You're on YouTube. It's all under the same title, which is Storytime with Papa Jake. You have hundreds of. of thousands of followers and you have millions of views on some of your stories. Of course, this book, but it's just, it's incredible and the story's not over yet.

Well, I hope it is. I hope it isn't for a while. How did it start with the TikTok thing? My granddaughter, I told you, I raised three years old, dances on a cruise ship. Coronavirus came. Crew ships quit. She came home. She's a very special person to her grandpa.

And she came over one morning and sat there. She says, Papa, I put you on TikTok with me. What in the hell is TikTok? TikTok. She says, it's a radio thing, she says, and

I said, what did you put me on TikTok? She says, well, while you were talking to me about one of your things happening, I recorded it and put it on TikTok. End of the week, she came over. Papa, I'm taking you off of my TikTok and putting you on your own.

What are you doing that for? My God, leave it alone. I says, you're opening a can of worms here. She says, Papa, it took me seven months to get 10,000 viewers. Seven months. She says, you surpassed me in one week. I said, what does that mean? She says, it means that people like to hear you tell stories.

So that's where I'm at right now. Well, it's an amazing story. And you're not just on TikTok, you're on Instagram. There's a YouTube channel that people can, if people don't have TikTok, they can watch it on YouTube. They can watch it on Instagram. I mean, you couldn't even Google me and get a risk. It's crazy. The book is called the luckiest man in the world.

It's a fantastic read. It's an unbelievable story. And if it wasn't, if we weren't sitting here talking to the man himself, you'd have a hard time believing it. But there he is. And so, so definitely pick up the book and it's just incredible. Echo. Yes, sir. Do you have any questions at this time?

I do not have any questions at this time. Really? Thank you, sir. Echo usually asks some kind of interesting question at the end, but maybe today we didn't just, you know. We covered it. I'm surprised he, because I thought you were going to ask farming questions.

Okay. I thought you were going to talk about chickens or horses. No, no, no, no. Or something like that, nothing, huh? Pretty straightforward, I think, at this time. Papa Jake's, Papa Jake Larson, we've had you for two hours right now. I want to be respectful of your time, but if there's any other final thoughts you want to share?

Amazon is the printer of my book. And make sure you mention my name. There is another book called The Luckiest Man in the World. We found out because somebody ordered that book and the wrong book came to them. Are we going to have to have a contest between you two to see he's actually luckier? I don't know.

I haven't even read it. But I want to thank you for the honor of sitting here. It is an honor for me. Because I think by telling this story, you will more honor those who gave their lives for me to be here. I would not be here without those guys. that sacrificed himself for me. There is a God.

That's my final word. Well, sir, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for your family for getting us down here, our friend Jack that connected us. Thanks for being here, and thanks for sharing your wisdom. But most important, thank you for your service to this great nation. And you and your friends and your generation stood against tyranny and evil and allow us to live under this blessing of freedom today. So we thank you and all your brothers in arms.

Well, thank you, sir, for allowing me to do this. And I appreciate very much what you're doing for me. Well, we are grateful, grateful for you and grateful for your service and sacrifice and the service and sacrifice of all of your comrades in arms and especially, as you have mentioned, the real heroes that did not come home. They're the ones. God bless them all. Indeed, sir.

Thank you. And with that, Papa Jake Larson has left the building. Yes, sir. And clearly, um, an honor to be able to have him on and hear those stories. And you know, talking to him before and after, man, you know, he, he kept saying he doesn't have any pain and, and he's doing great. He's doing great. Great. Because, you know, during the podcast, we weren't, we're not really yucking it up.

We're cracking jokes, but we're downstairs. He's, we're cracking jokes. And even before the podcast started, he said something about me. Like, he took a shot at me. And I went right back at him talking about being bald. And he was, like, laughing. And he's just totally sharp. Man, just an honor to be able to have him on here.

And you didn't have any questions. That was kind of surprising to me. No. Like my, I was wondering and actually now, like, kind of thinking about it more, let's say, clearly or whatever um you always kind of wonder about the experience from what it'd be in the boat you know landing and then going on he did you know he talked about it kind of for lack a better term kind of vaguely where he'd be like yeah I'm dodging bullets yeah I'm running I'm running trying to get away whatever that was

sort of it it wasn't like a like a narrative like of boom landing like what happened you know I'm thinking save it private saving private right and all this stuff you know I don't hear that, you know, because there was a lot of reflections of saving private Ryan. By the way, for sure, it's freaking D-Day. Yeah. The shakes, like that thing. There was another one, too. Oh, when he went and when he was looking for a match, right, for his cigarettes.

And then he goes, oh, hey, you got a match. He didn't say you got a match on saving private Ryan. But he does. He was like, hey, something. And he looks, boom, the guy, no face. Yep. Boom. Dang.

That's crazy. Yeah. The book, and the book has more details. and and you know it's it's there's a balance right of wanting to read some of the book and then getting some of his reflections on what he went through so um but just it's just awesome to have someone like that i mean literally to go from d-day to the battle of the bulge is crazy it's crazy and you know he has this jacket which i'll post on on the interwebs or whatever but it has all the little campaigns that he was in.

You know, D-Day, St. Lo, going right down. Paris. I kind of rattled them off, you know. But it's just, it's unbelievable. It's an honor. Obviously, a ton to learn and a ton to reflect on. So thanks to Jack out there in the world who put this together, one of our Jiu-Jitsu bros.

made the connection told you we could possibly get in touch with him and then you were kind enough to respond to him seven months after he sent his initial you know you know which was good we like that timing and stuff

but what when I walk away from this I just think to myself you know as as Papa Jake kept saying you know all these all these other individuals that didn't make it you know he's looking at that gravestone thinking this guy didn't get to have the family, the life.

And he did get to have that chance. And guess what? So do we. So it seems like we should be doing our best to live a life that is worthy of those sacrifices. Seems like a good plan. Yeah. It's crazy to think, you know, now being the age that we are to think, like how we mentioned, his friend in the Air Force who died at like 19 years old that's not even half your life well

that's like you're technically you're not even a full adult really and just that's you know that's the end I guess you're a full adult if you're in Hope Minnesota because you're up at year six years old milking 32 cows every morning oh yeah oh yeah yeah yeah yeah that's really it's so cool to read that stuff it's cool to read that stuff in the book for sure what it was like living back then. They didn't have electricity. They didn't have electricity in their house until he got out of the service in 1945.

It's crazy. Yeah, 45. He's all like, oh, that was a big jump from the horse and buggy. Yep. Yep. That was life. We think, we think like, oh, I went from a, you know, a V6 to a V8. Whoa, that was amazing change.

I'm so much better off now. Got that GPS now. Yeah, I got that GPS system. They're in horse and buggy. What about what about this whole scenario? Well, you know, my school was 14 miles away and in the wintertime the only way to get there is by horse and sleigh Slay Yeah, man And by the way, another thing they don't they're not wearing Gortex

Yeah, fin slate freaking you know pile polyester crick they're in wool Yeah, at best some canvas jacket, right? Just a different time. Different time. Freaking epic. It's crazy how he, you know, he's colorblind, like all this stuff. And then he falls in. He didn't say how he fell down.

That was the question I should ask. Like, why did he fall down? Like, how do you fall just randomly? He tripped over a curb. Okay. So, you know, a parking curb? Yes, sir. He tripped over one of those.

He was just like looking off ahead and just hit it. Boom. Hits his head. Colorblindness cured. And what else is cured? No, the colorblindness was cured when he got cataract surgery. Oh. There's a section in the book called Medical Miracles or something like that and it covers all these things

He mentioned some of them Oh yeah his shakes got cured He got cured when he got hit in the head Okay, so you're you yeah, you're the correct generation Okay, you remember Nintendo Entertainment System the original NES I I remember it but I don't I remember that it was a thing but it's not something that I had It wasn't your gym All right you remember because we didn't have electricity in my house Okay So no we didn't have

any money for that kind of thing but the that might be too strong my dad was like a computer he was into computers before computers were really a thing and so he had old school computers yeah but because you have an old school computer you're not getting some game system yeah so he was and plus he thought that a computer was for computing right not for playing a game got so there was no we never had any of those systems not we have one game playing system but we did have a computer do you know do you know about old old school computers I do you know what a Commodore Vic 20 is well you know that model specifically you know it's the first model okay

common it's the first model I want to say that the in bit the memory that came with the machine itself yeah was 2k and then there was some cartridge that you plugged in that gave you an extra 4K yeah yeah This computer was a weak. Yes, very weak. Either way. Atari. Nintendo.

So you didn't even have Atari then? No Atari. Nope. No Atari. Brutal. It's kind of abuse. And eventually we had, we had like versions of the games that were on Atari. But instead of it being called Pac-Man, it was a generic version called like Snack Man.

You know what I'm saying? Because my dad, my dad was a cheap human. I understand. You're not spending money on anything. This was when you get, he was part of like a sharing group where they would trade cassette tapes that had this information on it that you could play the game. Yeah. So we're talking to. Okay.

So, okay. This might not be horse and buggy, but we're. I understand. Truly. Yep. And you lived on a dirt road too. So, hey, man, I get it. Well, either way, the rest of the 99.9% of us that got our Nintendo entertainment system.

No, that. When you're in, when you, Nintendo got kind of older, and it would jam up, right? You put the game in, you stuff it down, and it blinks or whatever. It doesn't turn on. So there's two, two methods to get it going. Everyone knows the one you take the game out. You blow it, you blow on it because there might be dust in there. I don't know.

I think it's psychological. Either way, you put it back in, it usually works. Second method is you turn it off and you hit the side of the thing. You hit it. Just like a, even like a TV. No technique. Yeah. Yeah, we'd do it all the time.

TV's kind of like that too, I think. That's what Papa Jake's head was. You hit his head, boom, shakes, gone. See what I'm saying? Maybe they should have blew in his eyes or something. Maybe that would have worked, I'm just saying. Nintendo, Papa Jake, these lessons are everywhere. Lessons are everywhere, but you know what is incredible?

He is just incredibly sharp and healthy, walking up and down the stairs, no factor. Just awesome. makes me think about health, mental and physical health, how we can try and maintain that as long as possible. Yeah, it's true. All right, well, we got some solutions to that. Look at that segue.

Yeah, look at that segue. Oh, I kind of threw your nice little softball. You're just rolling. Well, hey, we're working out, right? Shoot, if I don't make a, let's face it, if there's no, if there's not a segue, we're talking about, we were just talking about, Commodore Vic 20s, right?

We were way off base. Well, so if there's no segue to get us back, you know, who knows what's happening. You're correct. So a segue occurred. Now we're back on track. Yeah, back into the workouts. Right. Papa Jacob's 120 pounds.

See, that's another thing you got to remember where it's not like it's like freaking jocco rolling up through, you know, you know how you guys talk about like all the gear that you guys carry or whatever. It's like, bro, one 20 carrying gear. Bro, that's like some effort. Well, he said he had 75 pounds. of gear plus his weapon. So we're talking,

that's a massive amount. That's the over double body weight. Yeah. Now, I did, I can tell you that guys nowadays carry way more gear than they did back then. Yeah. For the most part,

especially like in Nam. In Nam, you were just carrying two, well, let me get more specific here. The seals in Vietnam. One canteen, four grenades, a bunch of bags and your weapon.

Like those guys rolled. Light light. Light. And nowadays, man, you're going, you got radios, you've got so much ammo, you got body armor, you got helmet, you got night visions, you got lasers, you got extra batteries for everything. It's just a lot more. Which is not good, by the way, in many cases. Yeah, makes sense. Either way, when you're 120, bro, you better be going extra light.

Otherwise, that's going to take some effort. So, nonetheless, there, nor there as far as right now. right now we're trying to be as strong as we can i don't care 120 180 190 two bills whatever we're trying to be as strong as we can over here and as smart as we can all this stuff right yes not all of us are going to reach 99 by the way hey this is just the reality of the situation but we're going to try cool so we've got to do good stuff for our minds and our body don't worry we got you don't worry jaco supplements yeah we got you including energy drinks sure we all know about it but we're going to go right okay energy drinks with sugar bad i'm a simple

it. Bad. Energy drinks with preservatives and poisons. Bad. Energy drinks without preservatives and poisons. Good. As long as there's no sugar. Good. Okay, perfect. Jalco. Discipline go. Energy drink sweetened with monk fruit. Fruit, natural. No preservatives. Pasteurized. An actual healthy energy drink. Bacopa, alpha GPC. These are good things for you. Yeah. Literally good for you. Literally good. Oh, but what about the, what about the downside? I have yet to find a downside at all. Oh, wait, there's no downside. Oh, yeah, when you run out, that's the downside.

We have to be watching out for downsides. What can be the downside? I can tell you what the downside is, possibly. If you drink it too late in the afternoon, you might not go to sleep very early. Well, yeah. You can actually put yourself into a tough situation if you have one at, let's say, 6 o'clock or 7 o'clock at night.

Yeah, and here's the thing. There's a disclaimer with that, too, because that depends on your tolerance for caffeine. True. So you've got to kind of be sensitive to it to actually have that problem because only 95 milligrams. It's like a regular coffee. It's actually not even that big of a coffee.

It's like a regular, like cup cup. Does anyone drink one cup of coffee anymore? I don't know. Yeah, I don't think so. Not that I know. But I don't know. Either way. Nonetheless, as they say.

Nonetheless, it does have a little bit caffeine for the little boost, but all the other good stuff is a healthy thing. I was in Hawaii, Kauai, my homeland. Yeah, we were. And I was talking to my dad. My dad's 75. So I'm telling him about him. about my energy drink but like kind of in the beginning I was like oh god this is not

gonna apply to him saying jaco has an energy drink but I'm not the only one at this table that has an energy drink true and I'm preaching it you see what I'm preaching it but at first I'm like oh man why am I even telling he's brought to C-75 nothing drink energy drinks but then I'm thinking wait yeah he can you can straight up drink this energy drink and be good good to go so yeah B.C that's a B.C that's a wise man so you can get that you can get that you Yes, many different flavors. You mentioned mine.

Mine is mango, the best. Br, ask around. It's the best. Interesting. Maybe not to you. Conceptually. Unless, if you don't like the mango, there's all kinds of other flavors, too. Souraple, Sniper, orange, all this stuff.

Look into it. Joccofuel.com. That's where you can get this stuff. Also, for your joints. Papa Jake's talking about his joints. Don't even hurt. Yeah. Okay, that's how I want to be.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And currently, that's how I am. My joints don't hurt either. So I'm saying? It's because of the joint warfare and the super cruel oil. I didn't bring any in Hawaii. Did you feel it?

How many days did it take before you felt it? Four. Four days. Yeah, four days. It could have been the bed I was sleeping on. Didn't help either. But it was one time I felt it in my knee, though. That's not a bed, bro.

Yeah, no. The bed cannot make your knee. Plus you got the loose knees, the loose skinny knees. Whatever I was doing squats, too, though. Squats on vacation, I'm just saying. Yeah. You want to stay in the game. When you travel or just general life,

protect yourself immune-wise, vitamin D3, You can get that you can get Cold War I just had to jack some Cold War up Yeah right now because you know you get that little To me when I feel that I'm like Where's that cold war started hitting it hard? Mulk By the way

We're just having a discussion And look we all know that you have your favorite Yes sir Which is fine you might maybe your favorite's peanut butter Strawberry whatever That's cool The fact is after a month it's good to have that alternate

opportunity to get into some you know it's good to have that alternate opportunity get into some vanilla getting into some chocolate get into some banana cream which is out now by the way have you had the banana cream yet I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to have banana bomber

and your assessment is well I didn't taste it yet just came in like it came in while I was gone and I opened it I have I have a very strong assessment team to taste things

it's my family sure because they don't care about anything they will smack me with whatever and banana bomber boom five stars across the board which is legit

because they will like I said they have no issue with telling me if something sucks yeah they'll be all into it and plus they're also into stuff is it a thing okay I am you know

You know what a foodie is? Yes, right. Yeah. It's a thing. Yeah, it's a thing. And I think it's more of a thing now than it ever was like when we were younger. Yeah. There wasn't a thing.

No one would ever say, I'm really into food. They wouldn't even say that. Right, right. There was no thing like that. Yeah. It's just like food. It's like wine taster, right? Like I'm into wine tasting, but instead of wine, it's food.

I think. So I think people, kids, younger people these days have more, more appreciation and sensitivity to taste. Yeah, that takes me. So, because I'm kind of like, hmm, I'll, if I can stomach it, it tastes good. Straight up insensitive, it's good. If I can stomach it, it tastes good. If I can't, then it's not good, right?

Those are pretty binary. I understand for me. But my kids, man, they're frigging. So when they start getting kind of hyped about something, I know it's good. So, banana bomber. Yeah. And banana's one of those. And I don't know, maybe I'm alone on this, but maybe I'm not.

Banana is the kind of where it's like, okay, but that's good. It's fine. It's fine. But let's say, you know, when you got your more exotic fruits, you don't want to ruin it with some banana. But you usually add bananas sometimes. Oddly, yes. Yeah. And that's not normal. We got to send some to Tulsi because Tulsi is kind of the original banana adder, right?

Sure. She had the specific method. Yeah, they're very innovative. Yeah. For sure. She's always on top of things. She's just out ahead of the curve. You know, that's just in the game.

She's got an open mind and she looks and she assesses. She comes up with a solution set. Yeah, the frozen, rotten. You're right. So frozen, rotten, but it rotten? We'll say extremely right. Yeah, sure. But the banana, okay, so oddly, banana's like whatever.

We should have made this signature flavor for Tulsi, banana. Yeah, uh, frozen banana. Check. But it's like cucumber where it's like, cool, cucumber's fine. But if you get something that's like way better than cucumber and then you add cucumber, cucumber, cucumber makes it go to the middle of the road with it. So it kind of brings it down. That's the nature of cucumbers

And that's the nature of bananas too Have you ever been to a fancy hotel Where they have water and there's cucumbers in the water? Yes, sir. Do you like that? I like the effort for sure But I like the lemons would like better Or in Hawaii, strawberry way better.

Pineapple all day. Okay, so. Cucumbers to me? Bring me some plain water. Yeah. You know, they tried the cucumber Gatorade to Remember back when I was young and younger than I am now but

Cucumber Gatorade? No good. Correct. You're you're the freaking idiot on the marketing crew that was like, hey, let's make cucumber Gatorade. I don't have that info. Fired. But surprisingly.

So the point is with the banana surprisingly and actually not so surprisingly. So I like banana. Okay. Cool. Fine. But it brings things to banana level if it's better than banana, which is a bad thing. But you go banana cream. You ever have a banana cream pie?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's freaking legit. It's almost like it kind of supersedes. It transcends the banana stigma. You see what I'm over here Just here to tell you I'm just here to tell you

And this banana cream This is what I expect I didn't taste it yet But this is what I expect That's what I expect with a banana cream bomb You know what's interesting about this You can tell you've been gone for a while Because you and I are talking to go deep lots of stuff And it's also funny because you'd think maybe

We had something you know Interesting to talk about In a broad sense no We're literally talking about cucumbers and bananas Which is jacked up We're hurting people's lives right now We're taking time away from the So check it out.

Get milk. You get this stuff from joccofuel.com. You can get the drinks at Wawa. You can get everything at the vitamin shop. Go hit that stuff up. Go get it. And by the way, joccofuel.com. If you subscribe to any of these things, you get the shipping for free.

That way we compete with the large global corporations that are trying to take over the world. It's true. Help us compete. Go subscribe. Yeah, man. It's true. We can help you stay healthy. You know, speaking of large global.

Well, corporations taking over the world. You know, how they, you know, use. But what they do is they do this mass thing where they get the labor for as cheap as they can. Yep. They get it free if they can. They will try for sure. Yeah, if they can. See, it doesn't work like that.

It's not sustainable. You see what I'm saying? Unlike origin. See, that is sustainable. I'll tell you why. It's all made in America. Everything. All their stuff.

Got denim jeans. Got geese, jujitsu stuff. You got boots, wallets. What a is there belt? I got a belt Belts wallets Benis Beanie sweatshirts Shorts

Oh yeah Pants work And we got more stuff coming Oh yeah We got the hunt line coming Which the hunt line Going to be versatile too Yeah

I was talking to Pete I'm like hey you know like the puffy jackets Sure That everyone wears Every A lot of people wear Sure Not super puffy but like a thin puff

Yeah yeah like when you go snowboarding Yeah yeah yeah Yeah But that kind of thing when you go anywhere cold, people are wearing that everywhere, right? I say, hey, we need that. And well, so we're on that.

So we're going to be able to have an American made one because these people are like, oh, well, you know, we support the environment. We give some of our, some of our, our 1% of our profits to the environmental causes. Oh, cool. Meanwhile, you're supporting a freaking factory

in China that's putting more crap into the air than your 1% could ever cover. And by the way, the people that are breathing that in is not just the people that live there. It's also worldwide and the slave labor that they have making these things. So we get it. You want to say how nice you are?

We get it. You want to talk about how positive you're doing for the environment? You're not telling the truth. So we're going to, we got you covered. Origin USA. So there's an expression, BTN, right? BTN stands for better than nothing, right? So people use that in a good way.

Like I say, it's better than not. Better nothing. Yeah. You think workouts, freaking paying attention to your kids. Like all this stuff, you can use BTN. The BTN method, hey, it's better than nothing. It's like looking at the bright side of things, which is, it's not all bad.

You see what I'm saying? That's what makes it a tricky thing. But let's face it, you really want to go, how did you do it, the low-res, the freaking real black and white, right? BTN is not good. You want to do the best you can straight out. Yeah. All right.

So you start giving 1% to something that is a, 50% detriment That's BTN, that's bad. You know what I'm saying? It's better than nothing true. Yeah. It's also 49% bad. Freaking savages.

So origin USA supply chain Taking care of. American made, taking care of. American economy being stimulated. Taking care of. Taking care of jobs being created. Yes, sir. Good jobs.

Environment being saved. You talk to all our people there making stuff, bro. They'll tell you all. about it smiling the whole time oh man here to tell you origin USA.com.com that's where you get yourself some also jaco is a store called jaco store dot com so you can get your discipline equals freedom shirts hats hoodies that kind of cool stuff uh stuff this is good it's when you want to represent and we're representing on this path you know what decentralized command is yes sir okay

so sometimes is there such a thing as too much decentralized command yes sir so the there happens to be warrior kid soap we're down with that right young aiden out there decentralized command making stuff happen yeah guess what else he made candles well it's funny because in my house i don't like candles forbidden yeah i don't like the smell of them i don't like the more heat being produced in my house i don't like a fire hazard up in here right i don't like the uh the uh the uh what's that word the atmosphere that it gives off, right? It's way too soft. Yeah. Way too weak.

You want to make fire? We'll make a fire. We're good with that. A candle? Yes, sir. No, we're not happening. But decentralized command, all of a sudden we got a Jocko candle. And apparently we have an echo candle too.

Yes, sir. Yeah. So that's out there. And Echo So, you know, hey man, do your thing. Sounds good. BTN. Yeah. Yeah.

In a good way this time. But yeah, there's good stuff on there. Jocco store. Also on Jocco store. The shirt. A lot of updates to that one. Upgrades. Updates sounds like, you know, just maybe just, you know, some bad things that are now not bad.

I like the way you take your ideas and post them on the world. It's kind of funny how you do that. I'm trying to help over here. You see what I'm saying? Either way, upgrades on the shirt locker. Check those out. Shirt locker. If you don't know what that is, that's a new shirt every month.

Subscription situation. Every month. They're all cool. They're a little bit more creative. You know what Jack Daniel does? Well, no, he gets the, he has enough shirts, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. Which is pretty common in America.

You have enough shirts. Yes, sir. But he still wants to support. And he's seen some shirts that have come out where he's been like, that one would have been nice. Yeah. So he gets them and then he gifts them to the appropriate person. Right.

Yeah. That makes sense, too. Fully. JD. You're making it happen. Subscribe to the podcast. Speaking of subscriptions, wherever you subscribe to a podcast. We were just talking about podcast reviews.

It's cool. You want to leave a review. It's cool. What's interesting about the reviews is they're permanent. On the Apple reviews, they're permanent. So you can go back in time and you can go read early reviews about Echo Charles, man. The world was a ruthless place. That is totally, it was totally my fault.

You know, I got what do you call? I started on the wrong foot. What's that expression? You know, it got off on the wrong foot. This is what? My first analogy, if I remember correctly, was like, you know, you got to balance the dichotomies or whatever you were talking about back then and I made the analogy of a glob of mercury on a trash can lid and bro I'm just saying imagine that try to balance it

it's the same thing it's a perfect analogy when you think about it's just kind of out from fucking left field or whatever and I get it yeah I took heat for it yeah you did you took some heavies in the early days doing better now K dog was on the other day he got his first taste of uh social media the, you know, attacks, heat. Okay, dog. So anyways, subscribe to this. Check out Jocko unraveling and recording another one tomorrow. So those should be up hitting some pretty interesting topics with my brother, Daryl Cooper.

Grounded podcast, the Warrior Kid podcast. And then we have Jocko Underground. Jock Underground.com. This is our alternative platform in case we get attacked, banned. Shadow band, which apparently is a thing now, which has happened. Have you been shadow banned? I don't think I'm that influential. You never know, bro.

Maybe I need to take over your pages start posting all my controversial stuff. Oh, yeah, so controversial. Well, it is interesting, you know, it is interesting. But you wouldn't think that there would be anything that they would look at me and go, yeah, we need to suppress this guy. But hey, here we are, literally being suppressed. Yeah. So we have to have a backup plan. We have to have a contingency plan in place.

So that's why we have jocco underground.com. If you want to help us build and maintain that, it costs $18, $8.18 a month. That helps us build it and maintain it. We give you back another additional podcast. Do you need more podcasts? Probably not. Maybe not, but maybe you like to chill.

Maybe you like to hear about some alternative topics. And maybe you just want to support either way. We appreciate it. Also, if you can't support us, we'll support you. If you can't afford $8.18 a month, it's cool. Email assistance at jocco underground.com. We have a YouTube channel. It's true.

Which, there's some really good videos on there. And most of the really good videos have that extra little component, that extra thing that just makes them hit. Yes, sir. And that thing usually comes from me. The assistant director. It's true. Yeah. I had to, well, when Kerry was in the high.

Hot Seat, K-Dog, I had to kind of, I had to go a little bit deep on that one. Yeah, you've, you've embraced that role quite nicely. And we're happy. We're happy with that. That's just the way it works. Yes, sir. So, subscribe to the YouTube channel, check out the videos. Also, you can, you can see what Papa Jake looks like.

You know, and 99 years, you know, getting it. 99 years old. Impressive. Also, psychological warfare. It's an album. We did back in the day. Very useful album. gets us past our moments of weakness.

You ever think about, and I'm not saying you, Jock, I'm saying to our people, you ever think about the day where you're about to slip or you're about to skip the workout? What if Jocko's like right there? Not yelling, not yelling, by the way. Just telling you, hey, let's not skip this workout. In fact, here's some good reasons why you shouldn't skip this workout. So I'm saying? And he was just telling you practical advice to not skip the workout.

You probably do the workout. You probably do the workout. And in fact, you will do the workout. That's what psychological warfare is. is straight up so you get that you get that wherever you can get mp3s it's a good one also if you want to hang something awesome on your wall go to flipside canvas.com which is dakota mire's company and he makes awesome stuff to hang on your wall that's what it is made in america got some books obviously first book luckiest man in the world stories from the life of papa jake by by jake larson it's a

great book we skim the surface today go check it out support the man himself Also, final spin, had that story come out, had that book come out and check that one out if you want to check that one out. I would recommend you don't read it on a plane like J.P. Dinell if you're going to get embarrassed when you're crying. I'm not saying you're going to cry, but I'm saying it's an emotional book. It's an emotional roller coaster. So check that out. There's some lessons in there. Leadership strategy and tactics field manual, the code, the evaluation of protocols.

Discipline equals Freedom Field Manual. Way of the Warrior Kid, one, two, three, Christmas is coming. I don't care what, you could be a billionaire. You can't get a kid a better gift than those four books. That is a fact. There's nothing you can get a kid that you know better than those books. Nothing, nothing.

There's nothing better. That's a bold statement. And I just said it. And I stand by at 100%. There's nothing that could have better influence on a kid than those four books. When okay do you remember the date that part one way of the worry kid came out I want to say 2016 okay 16 so we got what five years in the in the bank maybe a little bit more than five years my daughter was eight now still demands I read every single night out part one we

just finished it again by the way yeah just the best gift you can give for a kid so hook that up also Mikey the dragons for the little little kids best little kids book That's ever been written. So that's what I've been hearing a lot of. You know when dads post and say they have a hard time making it through the book without tearing up. That's where we're at. Yeah, if you led it for sure. That's kind of where we're at.

About Face by Hackworth and then Extreme Ownership and the dichotomy of leadership. Also, we have Eshlam Front, which is a leadership consultancy. We solve problems through leadership. Leadership is the solution if you need help with the leadership inside your organization go to echelonfront.com You can also find out about our live events there whether it's the muster whether it's field training exercises EF battlefield you can check that out next muster is in Dallas Texas by the way March 24th and 25th We have online training program You can't get good at Jiu Jitsu

In one day you can't get good at basketball one day you can't get good at guitar in one day you can't get good at guitar in one day You can't get good at leadership in one day. You also can't get good at leadership from reading one book one time and thinking you got it. Now it doesn't work like that. That's why we made the Extreme Ownership Academy. If you want to come, you want to ask questions. You want to interact with me, with Laif, with the rest of the EF team. Come on there.

Extreme Ownership.com. And if you want to help service members active and retired, their families, gold star families, check out Mark Lee's mom, Mama Lee. She's got a charity organization. And if you want to donate or you want to get it. involved you want to help veterans go to america's mighty warriors dot org and if you want more of my over-emotional episodes or you need more of echoes exasperating explorations you can find us on the interwebs on twitter on the gram and on facebook facebook echoes at echo charles i am at jocco

And don't forget that you can also check out story time with Papa Jake on Instagram on TikTok On YouTube great great stuff to watch and to all the service men and women Past present and future thank you and especially to those of you that served in World War II Whether you're here with us in this life or you've moved on to the next we will will not forget what you did for us and for mankind and to our police law enforcement firefighters paramedics EMTs dispatchers correctional officers border patrol secret service and all the first responders out there thank you for your service which keeps us safe here on the home front and everyone else out there this life is a gift it's a gift and i'll tell you

something else it is a fleeting gift and every day that we have is a one day closer to death and as papa jake said you can't turn back time you cannot turn back time and in the end even forever is too short so follow the example of this brave man that we heard from today jake larsen and live every day to the utmost and you do that by going out there and getting after it until next time this echo and jocco out