Unsubscribe Podcast - 203 - D-Day & Battle Of The Bulge: The LUCKY Life Of A 102 Year Old Veteran! | Unsubscribe Podcast Ep 203

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

The legendary Papa Jake Larson is here to share his amazing stories from WWII with the gang. NEW SHOE DROP! https://www.bunkerbranding.com/collections/unsub-shoes Buy Papa Jake’s book! https://a.co/d/fDK50Oe Follow Papa Jake: https://www.instagram.com/storytimewithpapajake Check out: https://vorticwatches.com/ https://coloradowatchcompany.com/ Watch this episode ad-free and uncensored on Pepperbox! https://www.pepperbox.tv/ WATCH THE AFTERSHOW & BTS ON PATREON! https://www.patreon.com/UnsubscribePodcast ------------------------------ THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS! STOPBOX Get firearm security redesigned and save with BOGO the StopBox Pro AND 10% off @StopBoxUSA with code unsub at https://www.stopboxusa.com/unsub #stopboxpod MANDO Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with Mando and get $5 off your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with promo code UNSUB at https://shopmando.com ------------------------------ UNSUB MERCH: https://www.bunkerbranding.com/pages/unsubscribe-podcast BUY THE GANG A DRINK https://paypal.me/UnsubscribePodcast ------------------------------ FOLLOW THE HOSTS: Eli_Doubletap https://www.instagram.com/eli_doubletap/ https://www.twitch.tv/Eli_Doubletap https://x.com/Eli_Doubletap https://www.youtube.com/c/EliDoubletap Brandon Herrera https://www.youtube.com/@BrandonHerrera https://x.com/TheAKGuy https://www.instagram.com/realbrandonherrera Donut Operator https://www.youtube.com/@DonutOperator https://x.com/DonutOperator https://www.instagram.com/donutoperator The Fat Electrician https://www.youtube.com/@the_fat_electrician https://thefatelectrician.com/ https://www.instagram.com/the_fat_electrician https://www.tiktok.com/@the_fat_electrician ------------------------------ unsubscribe pod podcast episode ep unsub funny comedy military army comedian texas podcasts #podcast #comedy #funnypodcast Chapters 00:00:00 - Invasion Planning Insights 00:01:39 - Honoring Veterans 00:03:58 - Special Watch Gift 00:08:14 - Childhood Stories on the Farm 00:10:18 - High School Journey 00:12:25 - Brother's Sacrifice for School 00:14:28 - Life in High School and Challenges 00:17:00 - Family's Financial Hardships 00:21:31 - Finding a New Home and Support 00:23:06 - Typing Class and Its Impact 00:26:20 - Sick After Milkshake Incident 00:28:30 - Hospital Visit for Appendicitis 00:31:30 - Life as a Company Clerk 00:34:40 - Military Furlough Experience 00:39:04 - Life on Submarine Galley 00:40:35 - Convoy Experience and Submarine Chase 00:42:50 - Assignment in Ireland 00:45:14 - Promotion to Operation Sergeant 00:48:46 - Experience During D-Day 00:51:45 - Secrecy and Court Martial Threats 00:53:22 - Machine Guns Used in Combat 00:54:56 - Experiences with the BAR 00:56:50 - D-Day Mission Delays 00:59:41 - Landing Craft Experience 01:05:24 - Setting Up Command Post 01:07:07 - German Reconnaissance at Midnight 01:08:52 - Book Insights and Availability 01:12:25 - Battle of the Bulge Overview 01:14:10 - Marlene Dietrich's Performance for Troops 01:16:48 - Cold Conditions During Battle 01:19:35 - Landmine Encounters 01:22:40 - World War II Movies Discussion 01:28:09 - Memories of Homecoming 01:30:44 - Fixing Cars and Life Lessons 01:32:54 - Meeting New People After War 01:34:29 - Marriage Proposal Story 01:36:15 - Unexpected Photo Discovery 01:41:25 - Accolades and Recognition 01:45:50 - Honoring Veterans and Service 01:47:32 - Storytelling with Granddaughter 01:51:07 - Honoring Veterans and History 01:54:24 - Advice for Future Generations 01:56:15 - Reflections on Life and Faith 02:00:03 - Closing Remarks and Gratitude Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I got in on the planning of the invasion. I got the Bronze Star for that. All these little stories tied in your life to being the luckiest man ever. It's a beautiful story. We kicked Hitler's ass right out of here. I assume there was a statute of limitations to that. You can talk about it. Or you can talk about it now.

I don't care anyway. What can they do to me? That's my boy. Say hi to Eli. He's racially ambiguous. Brandon, his hair is fucking fabulous. Donut, a dark, dope disposition. And there's a fat electrician.

Welcome to Unsubscribe. Oh, hey, everyone. Quick update. These go on sale today. They're up. Bala Desert Night Camo in brown and green. Yay! Now I think we're finally caught up.

And then are you ready to drink this? Mr. Grandpa Jake? I don't want anything right now. No? Okay. Well, can we pop it on the camera for us on the count of three? You can pop it. Here. No, you got to pop it.

I'll help you. You ready? Hold it right here. We're going to crack it on three. One, two, three. Cody, start it off. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Unsubscribe podcast. I'm joined today by Eli Doubletap, Papa Jake Larson, Brandon Herrera, myself, Donut Operator. Thank you so much for being here. This is a very special episode for us.

We are so stoked for this. We have a real World War II veteran. You're a young 102. It's crazy. My life is crazy. And it's crazy I'm down here with you guys, you former veterans. Thank you for your service. I thank all the veterans. I'm here today because of all those guys that paved the way for me. They died. They died. Think of it, I came through alive without a scratch. Today I'm the only one still

alive of all the people I was in the service with. Well, you did. We are truly blessed to have you around. So is your family. Everyone on the internet loves you. And it is an honor from all of us as veterans to say thank you for the path you paved for each one of us. And actually, this is one thing. Your family knew about this.

We have a surprise for you. Unless they told you. And then they're in trouble. Is this an actual real surprise or did we get cheated here? So, you were at D-Day. We have the Life Magazine from D-Day. And the people over at Vortec, RT from Vortec and Colorado Watch wanted you to have this which is all yours to take home. This is from 1943.

So the actual Life magazine from 1943. So, leading into the war. And then this. Open that up. Open it up, good sir. Is it unlocked? There it is. I'm not sure I know how to open that up. Whoa. Whoa. whoa whoa take it out this is yours so vortec watch rt and all of us here on sub and the entire community out there we want to give you a piece of history whoa so this is that is an actual Hamilton 1942 watch. There's only 10,000 of those made.

That is a comparing watch. So that was actually at D-Day. That was used on the ships to tell time and seek everything up using D-Day. I got happy tears. Thank you. No, thank you, guys. They did all this for you. Listen, being my family forever, I'll tell you that.

What an honor. What an honor. Look at the back. You got everything. And even this has the date of when it was made. So this is where actual stop pocket watch. And they used to check with the ship's crometer, whatever it's called, to match all the times at that time. So all the ships had the same times.

But that was actually Hamilton made 10,000. They were all sent to D-Day. And then Vortec actually repurposed that watch for you to have as a gift. It's just a thank you for you, your family, for coming out here and just wanted to give you a gift from all the Westerners. Well, I want to tell you this. I didn't come down here to receive a watch because I don't think I'm any different than any other soldier that was in the service. But I am luckier.

That's the name of my book, The Luckiest Man in the World. I think I'm a little bit heavy on that. But my life is, you read that book, you're going to say, yes, he is the luckiest man in the world. So right now, I'm ready for some questions. As the luckiest man in the world, we have a lot of questions. So many. I'm glad you owe me a show.

I'm going to be here until they're answered. Perfect. We have them for what, seven, eight hours? It's the longest podcast ever. Stick him out. God, I love that thing. Did you guys ever see this one? I have never seen it. Did you say

something like it was a converted pocket watch? So it was turned into a pocket watch to an actual wrist watch. Beautiful. They bought Vortec. AJ bought a whole bunch of those and then just the remaining ones. And that was one of the few times Hamilton was US.S. based, so it was made in America. Beautiful.

For the entire war effort. That is genuinely beautiful. I'm very jealous of your watch. You're not going to get it off of me. I wouldn't want to fight you for it. I promise you that. Dude, it was the second they heard you were actually at normandy that they were so fast i'm like hey can we send something for him it's like a hundred percent we

would love that so we appreciate you coming out now for questions we you sent the book to us your family did and i was going to distribute it to everyone so we could all read it until i started reading your stories and then i was like oh no I want the guys to have a genuine reaction on camera because again you are very lucky as you will say as we when I walked in I was like how did you not get shot and I did first thing I said I was like this dude's way luckier than me but um you were born in 1922. Yes, in December 20th, 1922. And this is during the Depression. There was 11 days left of 1922. Now, that changed my life, because when I told people I was born in 1922,

they always consider I'm a year older. I think myself was born in 23, see. But it's, I started school at four years old. Grade school. Grade school at four years old? I graduated eighth grade out of grade school. And went to high school at 12 years old. What's crazy is you have, do you, can you tell the story of like you lived on a farm a majority of your life before joining the military? Correct, sir? I joined the National Guard in 1938. And at what age? I was 15 years old. He was 15 when he joined and that was you lied about your age? Only three years. Now with when you

were a child one of the stories you're telling, and you were nine years old for this, but you were selling a cow during a blizzard? Yes. A nine-year-old. We had a farm. I was born and raised on a farm. No electricity. No running water. Had to go to a pump by hand. And we milked 30 cows by hand every morning and night and carrying a

lantern to the barn and moving the lantern up and hanging it in the bubble as you milk the cows. Well if a cow can't get with calf, she doesn't milk. So in the middle of December, when I was nine years old, this cow we had hauled in a sleigh six miles and the cattle buyer there there. Weighed that cow. She weighed 700 pounds. I don't know how it came out exactly 700 but it did it did come out 700 pounds. I ask you what do you think we got for that cow? We got $7. That was depression. $1 per 100 pounds? One cent a pound. Wow.

One cent a pound. So when I got a chance to go to high school, after I graduated eighth grade, the teacher, Mrs. Jeffrey, stuck a little note in my pocket. She says, give this to your mother and dad. So of course I had to read that sucker before I got home. And it says, Mr. and Mrs. Larson, I suggest you give Jake a chance to go to high school. He's a fast learner. My dad read that. He says, be no high school for you.

He says, I got you to do the chores. I'm from a family of eight. I'm number seven. There's four older boys than me. My oldest brother, 16 years older than me, left home when he was 18, so I hardly knew him as a brother. Next is Earl, 14 years older than me. He's a horseman. We had 30 horses. He broke the horses. They were off to the prairie, wild horses. He broke them, shooed them, trained them to pull implements. So when my dad said, there'll be no high school for you, you got chores to do, I forgot about high school. Earl, 14 years older than me, never entered the cow barn before. He always did the horses. He stepped up and said, if you let Jake go to high school, I'll

do his chores for him. I'm here to courtesy my brother Earl. That's an amazing brother right there. He stepped up for you. Just so you could go to school. That's awesome. I got happy tears. I know he's here today. The amount of stories that you have throughout your life,

which do, even from your wife, and we'll get into that. It is, it's those things like where his brother did something or how you met your wife. All these little stories tie your inner life to being the luckiest man ever. It's a beautiful story. And then when you, what was one, when you were, you just, you had your family, you were doing high school, and then you were at 15 years old. What were you doing leading up to, like, hey, I want to join the National Guard or the military? I never told my folks about that. Man.

I got to lead up to that. Lead away, sir. Anyway, I started driving 14 miles into Owatonna in the fall. And then winter came. And winter in Minnesota was snow. No wheel things got chewed. They took the box off the wagon and put it on sleigh runners and that's how we'd get to Hope. It was two miles to Hope where our mailbox was. Were your mailboxes two miles away?

And I had to stop driving because there weren't no snowplows at that time. So my dad got together with a former neighbor that had moved into Wotana and bartered for my room and board. When I say depression, it was depression. I was starting near high school, and I made friends already. And my dad came to me, and after two months, he says, you're going to have to quit high school. I can't afford to pay for your room and board.

I says, what are you paying for my room and board? He says, a dozen eggs and a pound of butter a month. Eggs were one cent a piece. Butter was 36 cents a pound. Guys, when you leave your dogs at home, do you ever worry that they might find your firearm? Damn, maybe the ATF is onto something. No, I never thought about that. Introducing Stopbox.

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Made in America! Discover a better way to balance security and readiness with Stopbox. Stopbox, Stopbox, Stopbox! Stopbox. Jake, I have a question for you during that time. What were you eating during that time? What was the meal that you would have every day?

Oh, they fed us meals. We had cornbread and home-baked bread. People were buying things from the store. Hell, a loaf of bread at that time cost 10 cents. That's 10 eggs. And then what was your... While I was going to high school, my dad was paying off the farm 160 acres.

And he couldn't come up with the payment. And they were going to foreclose. President Roosevelt signed that Land Act. And Blooming Prairie, Minnesota was 18 miles from my home.

I remember my parents going there and getting a loan and paying off that loan. It was for $500. It was like $5 million now. But he saved the farm. But my dad was a bootlegger. He made his own whiskey. He'd sell a pint of whiskey, 86 proof, for $1 and a half a pint for 50 cents. We would have been good friends with your dad.

He didn't make a tremendous amount of money, but it helped. It sounds like dad was really cool. And then one of his best friends turned him in because the feds offered him $5 to point out whoever was bootlegging. Snitch. So my dad spent six months in Austin, Minnesota jail. While he was in jail, my mother said, this is our 25th years of marriage. So she made an angel food cake. And my brother Leo, who's 10 years older than me, I was 18 at that time. He drove our Jewett sedan to Austin, 35 miles.

And he said, eight-foot highways, cement highways there between. And he says, look, Ma, we're doing a mile a minute. That was one of the highlights of my career, man, going that fast. 60 miles an hour. Yeah. Did you ever help your dad out with the distilling the whiskey? Oh, he didn't allow anybody to mess with it. That was his own thing. My brother Leo put a cup under the

drip of the alcohol in there. That's nearly 200 proof that comes out of there. And he'd put it in his own bottle and hide it in a stump someplace. Darrell Bock Good old stump whiskey. Your brother was ahead of the time. Tell the boys about the coffee punch you made. Was it coffee punch? Oh, I was five years old. And my dad and mother went to town to get more sugar,

I guess for running through the still and some flour and stuff. Just necessities. We grew all the vegetables. My mother canned everything. That house only had heat from a wood stove. She did all the cooking on that. In the summertime, when the garden was producing, we had 100 degree weather and humidity every day. How she managed to do these things is befounding. When my dad said I couldn't go to school anymore,

it was taxing him too much for paying for my room and board. I told my friend Bob Myers the story. He says, Jake, he says, come home with me tonight. My mother is a widow. She runs a room and board house for eight people. I want you to meet her. So he took me home with her. She was a duplicate of my mother.

Kind, loving woman. So I agreed to help her. I couldn't go out for any sports when I did that. I had to rush home every noon to serve these eight people. She, that's Mrs. Myers, was out helping others so she could make money on the side. Everything was so tightly held back. You didn't have any money.

Now, we'll go in until I'm 15 years old. I'm going to high school. and when I started the 15th year the principal called me in and said you got room for another subject I said what are you talking about she says you you could handle another subject and she read off a list and And typing was one of them. So I took a typing class for a year. I was the only boy in the class of 30. Good for you. At the end of one year, I could type 50 words a minute.

Especially when you can't make mistakes. Now, that typing class is why I'm sitting here talking to you right now. Why is that? Why is that? The outfit I was with, the 34th the 135th Infantry Regiment that I joined when I was 15, and we were put in the Federal Service before I was 18, and we landed up down in Louisiana, Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, and that's where I was when Pearl Harbor started.

How many people do you know that was in the service before Pearl Harbor? You? Don, well, before Don Graves, was he in before Pearl Harbor? I'm trying to remember. Yeah, no, he enlisted afterwards. That was the reason he enlisted. I don't think we've ever met a single person that was enlisted before Pearl Harbor. So that was before the war.

And most of them were drafted. And you see, I'm a National Guardsman. The difference between a National Guardsman and a regular infantryman is the serial number. And I'm not joking. I have eight digits in my serial number. A selectee or one that joined the army has nine. I did not know that. When we got down to Camp Claiborne, the first thing they did was put us on maneuvers, division maneuvers. What were you doing for those maneuvers?

Division maneuvers. We were out with the alligators, the poisonous snakes. They had poisonous snakes, poisonous spiders, and it's triggers. My God, they eat you up. So in June, the maneuvers were over. We got back to Camp Claiborne. And Amos Graham said, Jake, let's go into Alexandria and get something good for eating. So they got a pass.

We went into Alexandria, Louisiana. 18 miles, I think it was. But they had the trucks haul us in. Those were passes. So we got in, and Amos says, what do you want first? I said, oh, I want to have a chocolate milkshake. So I got a chocolate milkshake and was just about finished with that and I said,

Boy Amos, I'm getting sick. He says, You can't get sick on a milkshake. I said, I am getting sick. I'm gonna have to vomit. So I had to vomit and I was still sick. So I said, Amos, I'm going back to the trucks. This is Saturday night. I said, and go back to camp. So I went back to camp and went to bed. At five o'clock in the morning, Joe Skłosnicka, Corporal Joe Skłosnicka, Corporal Joe Skłosnicka, woke me up, says, Jake, you're on KP this morning. Joe, I've been sick all night. Don't give me that BS. He says, you get your fatigues on, get up to the mess hall. So I went up to the mess hall.

Max Buntai, mess sergeant, says, Jake, aren't you feeling well? No, I told him the story about me drinking the milkshake and getting sick. He says, is that all you drank? Is that all you drank? I says, honest to God, I said, that's all I drank. He said, you go back to that last table.

We don't use that one there. And you lay down on the bench of the table. And when sick call comes around, you go to sick call. Sick call was just across the street from the mess hall. So I got over there at 8 o'clock. I sat there and waited until 10 o'clock before a doctor got to me. There was quite a few guys

didn't take those maneuvers too good, you know, and so they had repercussions from that. So I laid up on this table at 10 o'clock, and he was pressing around on my stomach here, and he was pushing down on my stomach. And he says, how does that feel? I said, ah, that feels good. And then when he did like that, I just about flew off the table. Wow, he says, appendicitis. I'll call the ambulance. Hospital was five blocks away. I waited till 12 o'clock before the ambulance picked me up. Before I got into the hospital, my appendix broke. So I had to stay in.

They had to put more operations on me. And how old, sorry to interrupt, but how old were you roughly when this happened? I had just turned 18. Wow. I had just turned 18 wow i just turned 18 so it wasn't the chocolate milk or the chocolate milkshake you can't prove that do you take a shower and still smell bad do you suffer from thigh folds do you know how to play magic the gathering if so do we have the product for you today's sponsor mand. You know what makes Mando different from any other deodorant? It's whole body deodorant that is safe to use anywhere on your body. You can even use it in your butt crack. And trust me, I do. And you probably should. I've

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Here's where the typing came in. I went home on sick leave. My mother changed the bandages on my operation. There's no one heals better than a mother. Nurses don't even compare to mothers. They have that feeling. So I went back to camp, Claiborne, after my sick leave, and I found out I'd been transferred to headquarters, headquarters company, 135th Infantry Regiment. Somebody was going through my records and saw that I could type. So they needed a company clerk over there. So I was transferred over there as a company clerk and I was given a corporal rating. For two months, I was doing that all by myself. And the headquarters company always gets additional stuff from other companies, and they're on my payroll, see.

So, man, when you're typing payroll, see? So, man, when you're typing payroll and you have five carbons in there, you pound that typewriter. And you don't want to make a mistake because it takes, half the time is correcting everything.

So I learned to type without mistakes. We could not do that. I would be so bad without auto-correct. I'd be spending a lot of time correcting mistakes. Red lines everywhere. Yeah, yeah.

That cuts down your efficiency quite bad. Well, the captain said, I want you to go to supplies and pick up a T.O. for our company. What's a T.O., sir? Tables of Organization, he said. I said, all right. I goes down and gets it, and of course I have to read it. I'm astonished.

As a company clerk, I should be a sergeant with a corporal helper. I'm a corporal with no helper. I brought this up to Captain Erickson and he says, I gave that sergeant writing to a friend of mine he says I can't just take that away from him and he says I'll get you a helper so he got me a corporal helper

that could not type wow he made points with corporal Larson Japanese hit Pearl Harbor our commanding

colonel for the 135th Infantry Regiment came out he's right up there with the company clerks. His office is right up there. He comes out and he calls us to attention. And he says, you go back and tell your commanding officer that I am authorizing 15-day furloughs to Minnesota

for all those who haven't had a furlough in the past year. And a furlough is a military, like a break, like a, like you're two weeks off? Yeah, well, he says 15 days he was authorizing. Okay. Well, a thousand miles from Minnesota, middle of winter, you know. So five of those days are spent traveling both ways. Yeah, yeah. And just before freeways. You drove from town to town.

Yeah. Oh, wow, yeah. It'd take you three, four days to get up there and then you'd have to come back. So I brought that up to Captain Harrison. He says, Sergeant, Corporal, you do as you're told. I'm the commanding officer here. I says, yes, sir. So I went up, checked the records and there were 54 guys that hadn't had a furlough in the past year and corporal jake larson was one of them i had sick leave but so i you everyone has to have a private individual copy of his you don't make them all together and the

captain has to sign everyone individually so I found 54 guys like that and I'd made them out for that. Something happened to my typewriter or something, and it kind of made a mistake on mine. It put me down for 15 days. And the captain signed it. Did you sneak it in there? When I got back from my 15-day furlough, he ripped off my corporal stripes and says,

You're a private from now on. You'll be climbing poles and stringing wire. I said, Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. He says, I should court-martial you. I says, I'd like to know the reason you could court-martial me, sir. You signed the papers that I made up. I says, so.

He didn't have an answer, see. He didn't have an answer. In the book you said... We were... Then the 34th Division went to New Jersey waiting for transport overseas, waiting for a ship to come in. So my two cousins and I traveled around New York in the wintertime, had our heavy overcoats on and everything. Went to the Statue of Liberty, up to the world's highest building and Radio City, all-girl orchestra,

and we had a ball. And we're coming down the street there, and a pigeon came down and shit on my shoulder. I'm born and raised on a farm with pigeons, and they don't shit on you. But the French luxury liner Normandy was in the harbor in New York and laying at a 45 degree angle burning. I didn't know that was a thing. That was the fastest ship in the world at that time. I think it was 32

knots that it would make. But I saw that burn. Then we went overseas on the Aquitania and And we got into submarines. I volunteer for working the galley. That's the kitchen. Those guys fed me steaks. I always had great food. Those English cooks, they loved to mess with fish. Everybody had fish, lots of fish, or mutton. But I had my choice. So, see, little things like just volunteers or something like that changes your life.

So you're working in that galley, you start sweating. So I went to take a shower, and I got my soap. I could not make a suds of anything. Man, what is the problem here? They've got a soap that works with salt water. And I didn't know that.

Regular soap does not work with salt water. I didn't know that either. Did not know that. So, they got some salt water soap and then I could take a shower. But we had submarines that came into the convoy. I think there was 50 ships in the convoy. I don't know where we stood in there because you look ahead

those ships. I think there were seven submarines got in there and one of them, the destroyer, was chasing it right down alongside of us and when the destroyer came alongside of us and dropped that depth charge it moved our ship over about a foot each time. Just swaying. We made it to North Ireland but we had to, they couldn't get into the harbor because there were so many ships being repaired that we landed in Glasgow, Scotland, and we took little ships, or whatever they were. But I slept in a broom closet there on the way over. And when I woke up, they were passing out sandwiches.

And some of the guys were standing over to the rail feeding their sandwiches to the gulls. That's a no-no. Yeah, they tend to shit on your shoulder. Yes. They come sweeping in and pick up that piece of bread and leave out a stream like that right across your chest.

And that is not pleasant smelling. Papa Jake, you're amazing when you got so that was ireland what our co-host or a co-owner miss show she does a lot she does producing and everything she's actually from ireland she moved here three years ago the blonde lady in the back, she's from Ireland. She has her accent and everything. And how long were you in Ireland for? Well, I got there, and I came in with headquarters company. And the first thing I knew, there were three of us, a staff sergeant, Robert Jeffrey, a corporal, William R. Cray, and a private, Jake Larson. Former corporal.

Yeah, well, you don't say that. You are what you are. You don't look back. from, but we were to transfer all Americans that joined the Canadian and the British forces before we got into the war and transfer them in at whatever rating they were in that Canadian or British forces. About 30 days we did that. I did all the insurance, GI insurance. I sold GI insurance to the people and that was my job. And after 30 days that dried up and we went back to our company. and I'm thinking I'm gonna be climbing poles and stringing wire the next thing I knew there came an order down from fifth core fifth core fifth core you guys know what a core is go on

explain it to us. I actually don't know. Like, we have kind of a general idea with, like, battalions and stuff, but we didn't have corps in the military. Think I'm from the infantry. There are two corps in an army. Two corps. Each corps has two divisions under it. Okay. Each Corps has two divisions under it. It came out that I'm in 5th Corps in G3. That's the plans and training. I became an operations sergeant. I got in

on the planning of the invasion. I got the Bronze Star for that. I was in charge of Omaha. The whole Omaha thing. Every day from 730 at night to 730 in the morning. I was a staff sergeant. In the daytime the two officers that ran G3 was a full bird colonel, who later became a general, and a lieutenant colonel. That's wild. You see? How did that happen? I probably am the only infantryman that ever made it into core headquarters and i got me you see i tell you i'm i'm lucky that's wild because and as brandon was asking it's like

how did that happen just because everything led to you getting into fifth core yeah and then the that just how the chips fell? Like, how did you end up being the person in that position? Other than, of course, being lucky. Because Colonel Hill wouldn't do anything without me. I was his right-hand man. When I did something, he knew it was right and fast. I always recommend people that are in the service, whatever somebody tells you to do, do it. Do it and do it fast. Do it so that

no one else can come and take your place. That's the key to getting ahead. I feel like that's true for pretty much any job. Wise words. Very wise words. Very. So we were right in a baloney with Eisenhower and his generals.

You were in a what now? A baloney. I'm not familiar with the term. A bologna is like a horseshoe, but it's a Quonset horseshoe. All different units inside that, and Eisenhower was in one of those things, and I was in the same one. Every person that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day came through these fingers. I'm the only one who can say that.

And I ran Omaha Beach every night from 7.30 at night to 7.30 in the morning. I had a corporal helper, Madison Rich. Did your corporal helper know how to type this time? Oh, he was an excellent typer. Good, good. You got an upgrade. He could take dictation.

He had that, what do you call it? He could as you talked he could write it out shorthand. Oh, scribes. See, I could not take shorthand. Same.

I'm bad at everything. I'll take some questions. What was D-Day like for you? Because you were leading up to that and then you were part of D-Day. You beached and it was just running. One month before D-Day, there was a little thing called...

The colonel said, I want you to go to... Slapped in Sands? I can't remember the name of it. Slapped in Sands? Slapped in Sands. I know we're going to get there, but the town in England where we loaded on these landing ship tanks... Portsmouth?

Portsmouth? Portsmouth? Portsmouth? Portsmouth? Portsmouth? No, that's where I came from. That's where I was in those baloonies at Portsmouth. Oh, okay, okay. Good thinking. Good thinking.

Plymouth. Plymouth. Plymouth. That's where we loaded on the LSTs. Men. 400 men in each one of these LSTs. And the British had a little operation going there at Slapton Sands. So he wanted me because I'm from the infantry. There, see, every time you turn around,

because you're from the infantry and you've been through this, you get to go. So I'm on the first one. They have another one a half a mile to my right. And another one a half a mile further on. And we're in the front three. And we're coming in to slap the sands. And the British are ready to open up fire.

And behind us, there's a total of 11 of these landing craft, landing ships. They're following behind us. And just when the British were ready to open fire over our heads, two German E-boats came out, torpedoed those two ships to my right and sunk them and they opened fire on the guard on the top of us. They knock out our air. So there was 400 of us laying on the floor vomiting from diesel gas. I don't know how we made it back to Plymouth but we got back to Plymouth. But we got back to Plymouth. A full-bird colonel came out and swore us to secrecy that all this didn't happen.

And we were threatened with court-martial if we ever talked to anyone about it, even our commanding officers. I lived with that for 45 years. I assume there was a statute of limitations to that.

Or you can talk about it now. I don't care anyway. What can they do to me? That's my boy. Dude, the internet would be so mad. The internet would rally behind you. That's my boy. Grandpa G. Dude, the internet would be so mad. The internet would rally behind you. That's insane, though.

I've been called a liar so many times. You can't make this up. You cannot even imagine it. There's no way you could even think of that stuff. And in between times, I had to go down to Land's End and shoot.50 caliber machine gun, water cooled machine guns at towed targets because i came from the infantry see never used it afterwards but but i i've got all that memory in me you you can't get rid of that no the experience yeah papa jake i just want to ask brandon real quick what type of machine guns do you think they were shooting so if you're talking about a uh a water-cooled 50 caliber would be uh

that would be yeah like the m2 browning but with the water cool shroud on it yeah yeah yeah it's an og one they weren't very popular later on because you know you don't you really don't need them anymore but uh in the early prototypes uh and especially like a lot of the early issued guns were were water cooled all machine guns almost at that time right or a majority well they started with the the maxim and i mean when the maxim was made in 1883 but they they followed through to the vickers gun was a different machine gun than the other because you would have been talking about the M2 Browning, right? Yes.

The M2 Browning. The Ma Deuce. The good old, the Ma Deuce. But yeah, a lot of people don't know it started as a water-cooled .50 cal. I didn't even know. And then it became... Oh, I carried a BAR

when I was in the infantry. It was too heavy, though. That's another Browning car. That's some big Jake energy. That was heavy. Heavy, though, right? Yeah.

Sixteen pounds, that sucker. I came out of the infantry I think like this here that was held down so when you I gotta ask real quick did you like the BAR did you enjoy was it a chore

for you to be the BAR operator or did you enjoy it I loved it. I loved it. Jake, did you ever carry a Thompson when you were over? A Tommy gun? Did you ever carry one of those? No, I never had one in my hands.

What was your favorite part about the BAR? The BAR? The BAR? The BAR? Man, whatever you shot at, it just seemed to explode. Because you'd get a burst of about three in Grand, there's eight shots. The British Enfield, there's ten shots. I think the British outshot us. You think even though that theirs was bolt action? Yep. Really?

Yep. But the BAR held 20. Makes that problem go away very quickly. Yeah, yeah. When you give a short burst like that three, man, then there's 17 left, see? Yeah, pretty sure there's 15 left. Just a shot. Good gun. Good gun. Yeah. And they were, that was a heavy load you're carrying all that ammunition. How many?

Besides the gun. How many magazines did you carry for the BAR? I don't really remember. I really don't. I had all those things on my mind. That makes sense. Fair enough. So what was D-Day itself like on that, when you got the word?

Because reading your book, you said the times changed, weather changed, so you would have these missions. Or you were like, hey, d-day is happening at this time but then it keeps getting delayed and pushed back and your adrenaline trying to sleep during this 72 hours how long did that take before from time of mission supposed to happen to when actually d-day happened well i'll start from scratch okay's something to, I'm going to tell you, the next thing I'm going to tell you is, never heard that before in my life, that you could do that. How do you think Eisenhower got over there to D-Day?

I was on the same ship as Eisenhower. No doubt. That's wild. I was on the same ship as Eisenhower. No doubt. That's wild. I came over on the command ship. Can you believe that? I have to ask, what was Eisenhower like? I never got to jump up there for one reason.

The Germans cut us off. I was in on the start of the Battle of the Boles. They cut us off. I was at Eupen, Belgium. Then there was the massacre at Malmedy. That's where the Germans had captured these hundred and some Americans that were observers, artillery observers or something, and had them in the ditch. It was snowing.

And when those tanks went by, this Lieutenant Colonel Pfeiffer ordered his tanks to use the machine guns on the guys as they rolled on by them. That was a massacre of Melvety. I have seen quite a bit. and I observed quite a bit. And I tell you, you never find somebody that has been through me what I've gone through. I'm kind of proud of it now, but it always seemed like I was in on everything. And then you guys beached on D-Day.

I got off the ship. I was the first one into the landing craft. So I sat by the pilot. That's the way to come down these rope ladders. They're carrying 74 pounds. I plopped down and along the side of this boy. I don't think he was 17 years old yet. He was in the Navy he was the Navy pilot and he was supposed to take us in so we'd stand about waist deep he got a little scared he let us off early we were right to our neck and holding your rifle up above. And then you start going across an ocean that is loaded with land mines. We were told we'd be crossing land, about one million landmines that Hitler had planted there. Come to find out, when they cleaned those up, there was a million and a half. We received a lot of small arms fires from the shore. It didn't bother me one bit.

I was afraid of stepping on a landmine. I went through six battles. I never got a scratch so I could get a Purple Heart. That's extra time off. Our Eli Cuevas, the extra time off recipient. And I didn't get extra time off because I went to the wrong aid station. When I got shot, I went to the wrong aid station. So I was at work the next day. I had a mission the next day.

I got shot in the leg. Oh, see what I mean? Yeah. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. I was like, arm is strong. I'm like, uh. So that's one thing in your book. You said you followed other people.

You would follow the footprints up the shore. Oh, did I ever. Man, oh, man. That's smart. That's's smart. That's very smart. I'm in line from just one of those landing craft infantry. There are 30 of us on there.

Think how many of those guys are going in in lines. You look over there, there's a line. There's a screw of water shoots up in the air. Somebody stepped on a landmine. Is that something you thought about before you landed? You thought, I'm going to go up behind the guy who's already gone through? No, we had a rope to go. I was on Easy Red.

I got off of there and went over to Easy Red Road. That's the killing this whole line. I'm going through there and I come out without a scratch. More people were killed on Easy Red than any other landing. How come I didn't get killed? How come I didn't even get a scratch? I got down closer to shore and I had two MG42 machine guns from opposite sides of the cliffs and they were trying to kill me. So I got the gun behind that six, eight inch stone burl that protected me. They bounced those bullets off of that thing. So I dug out a cigarette, put it in my mouth, reached for my matches.

They were wet. Figures. So I sensed a soldier to my left behind, and I hollered, Hey, buddy, have you got a match? I got no answer. So I looked back there. There was no head under the helmet and God at that exact moment, it's like the soul of that soldier was saying, get up and get out of there right now. And I did. You may think this is strange, but those two machine guns shot off at just that time. I don't know whether to put in more bullets or change barrels or something.

I got up and ran. And then they started again. I was 5'7". I weighed 120 pounds. And I thought, these soldiers aren't used to shooting at toothpicks. I really thought that. I got through to the cliff. I don't remember. My job was to set up the command post. I don't remember even touching it, but I must have done it. And Madison Rich, next thing I knew, it was 7.15.

Madison Rich and I were digging our foxholes to go to sleep that night. I had found a litter that hadn't been used. So I put that in the bottom of my foxhole so that I wouldn't be sleeping on that wet sand. Somebody said, Sergeant Larson, Colonel Hill wants to see you right now so I goes to Colonel Hill he says Sergeant he says I just got word from First Army they want me to keep G3 open 24 hours a day you are going to run the night shift. I said, starting when, sir? He said, starting right now. We were supposed to land on the 5th.

The storm came in. So we loaded on the 4th. Do you think anybody sleeps? They don't. Everybody was running on adrenaline. You do. This was the night of the 6th, and I'm on duty again. It's not that lucky sometimes.

You have a lot of luck and then really bad luck. It's at midnight the Germans sent over a reconnaissance plane. They wanted to know what we're doing on the beach so they dropped all these small handkerchief sized parachutes loaded with magnesium so they can light up the beach and take pictures while our anti-aircraft flons on that. So they start shooting up pretty soon. Everything's quiet down and I wake up again and I'm being relieved it's 7 30 in the morning I I goes back oh I I had told Madison Rich you could sleep in my foxhole because rifle on that litter. So when I went back there that time he was just getting dressed

and he picked up his rifle and it fell in two. The rifle fell in two. A piece of shrapnel had come down and hit that rifle and broke it right into that that's a heavy instrument yeah you got lucky you didn't sleep you got lucky for guard then holy you were just saying he wasn't lucky i know and now i'm like dang never mind i'm a liar that shrapnel could have broke you into this is all in the book this i'm not telling you anything that isn't in the book real quick while while we're in the middle of this like so we don't

wait until the end where can people find this book is it on amazon where where's it on amazon okay so you can you can go read this book for yourself right now but it's it's honestly it's genuinely a a very serious pleasure to be able to hear these stories firsthand because you know anybody can read a book but i i feel i feel like i speak for all of us we feel very privileged to be able to hear it from you this book this book This book. And I'm not a writer. I'm not a writer. But I just told you the story of my life, and that's the way I wrote it here.

No big language. I don't know big words. I mean, you had us on. It's like Furlong. It was interesting to listen. Like, even reading this. Like, Furlong, we call it. interesting to listen like even reading this like furlong we call it um what do we leave yeah leave yeah furlong now we call leave so like reading these i was like oh man how terminology terminology has changed and all that and then also a lot of stuff

i like when you were sick and they were doing the military gave you to clean your sinuses out. What'd they give you? Those two for the sinus infection you had? Oh, yeah. They finally gave me penicillin. I was the first, one of the first people to use penicillin in the world. And it loves me. Well, they said you had two big sticks with like a brown goo

and they put them in your noses. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could shove that stick just like that, right straight back there. I think you could reach over here and pull it through. Tickling your memories of second grade. And that how they got that was for your sinus was just put big sticks in oh oh I had

bad sinus I had ear infection because of that bad sinuses and how did they get for ear drums what would they do what's my ear oh for Oh, for the eardrums. Like for pilots and stuff, they would just rupture your eardrum to fix it? They couldn't do anything on the outside because the infection is on the inside, see? So that's why they shoved that brown stuff in there. The brown stuff was the penicillin no they no no that way was some something else they put two brown sticks in his no like here in his sinuses straight up to your sinuses no sticks were that long too and then for eardrums on the covid test was bad i know

and then for eardrums apparently it would just rupture the eardrum or poke it. I hate to be in the... God, think of it. Think of rupturing your eardrum. Flyers would not compensate when they got up high had to have their eardrums punctured by a doctor man i stay away from my ears but you're still like the brown just goop in your nose you're like oh no so you you did normandy or and you never got shot, no Purple Heart. You made it all the way through.

And then after Normandy, it was Battle of the Bulge. Yes. And you were talking about that a little bit, but as you said, your unit was cut off as part of the unit's cut off. Yeah, I was in that unit. We were cut off from First Army. And we joined Field Marshal Montgomery's Army group. Field Marshal Montgomery.

I saw him. He'd come up and get a load of cigarettes. He didn't smoke himself, but he'd pass them out to his buddies. Good leader. Good leader right there. Yes. How many people do you know that served under Phil Marshall Montgomery?

I did serve under Phil Marshall Montgomery. Even of individuals at Battle of the bulge you are now the only one or normandy that's why we were so excited actually yeah we've had uh we had don at iwo jima iwo jima and then that's reaching out to your family it was like a no-brainer for all of us we're like a hundred percent we canceled plans yeah everything got moved around for this like nope nope but you were at

the Battle of the Bulge and that, like, even the temperature, like, how cold was that? What were you wearing? What was that experience like? At the Battle of the Bulge? Yes, sir.

Well, I'm going to start from scratch again. Get it. Perfect. Battle of the Bulge starts on December 15. Marlene Dietrich was going to perform for the troops. I had to go to work at 730 at night. So I went to work 730 at night in G3, keeping G3 open. And Marlene Dietrich entertained the troops. She was about 50. We all lived, we just loved her. She could put on a show.

She had that voice with that European accent. God, we just loved listening to her. And she loved the troops. I never did get to see her. Because that's the night this just corporal mp drove up at midnight and he came out of his jeep and came walking toward me and while he was walking toward me he was saluting me and saying sergeant I'm from post number six I was walking my post and I looked up and there were German parachutists looking down at me I said

what do you do he says I jumped in my Jeep and came up here right now. I said, good thinking, good thinking. So I went and woke up Colonel Hill. I told him what the corporal had said. He says, Sergeant, go wake up General Drou. So I woke up General Drou, told him, and people say to me, what did the general say to you, Jake? I said, I think he said, thank you, Sergeant. He says, what do you mean, thank you, after you tell him that? I said, well, I don't think he's there to converse with a staff sergeant. But the colonel wanted to see him. And that was the message I was giving.

So we did alert all our units. And we saved quite a few lives. And that is one of the happy spots of my life there was it cold like how cold was it during that time because you guys like army jackets it was winter time yeah snowing and then you're in military gear army gear not the warmest now uh military grade yes and then how long were you so how long was that part of your well to

December 30th that was Battle of the Bulls was working down we had them on the run at that time they were marching off the field they ran out of petrol or gasoline and they

dropped their rifles and walked off. Now there's a strange thing. There's 10,000 missing Americans that they never accounted for. They don't know what happened to those 10,000. They think they were captured by the Germans and executed. But we kicked Hitler's ass right out of Europe. We did that. Hell yeah. Well, if you think I'm not lucky, after the battle

at San Lone, that was our first battle, you wake up at two, and you're sleeping in a ditch. And there's the road right up here. It's hardly room enough to sleep in between, so I'm plugged into a side wall there of dirt. And I come out of there sleeping, from sleeping, to brush my teeth and there's soldiers carrying something on the road.

I'm not paying attention to them. Somebody said, what the hell are you doing down there? I'm brushing my teeth. I'm going to shave here pretty soon. He says, get the hell out of here. He says, we're sandbagging a 155 millimeter shell that did not explode coming over you. It's landed on the road and they're sandbagging it so they can explode it. You can't make that kind of lock up. Not at all. There's just... About the next day, we're going to move the command post again.

The colonel asked me as a favor if I would, if he ordered a jeep, if I'd go up there and check it out. I said, anything for you, yes. So he gives me a little hand-drawn map. So got this driver and we come to a place that had trees about four foot, five foot high, just willowy trees.

And we drive by there and I said, hey, I think there's a culvert there. I think that's the place where we got to stop. So while he's turning around in the road, the jeep behind us turns in over that culvert and blows up. It's a landmine. Oh, man. See, you can't make this stuff up. How was it like with those type of memories for yourself as like a World War II veteran?

What was getting back to the civilian life? You got out, you did the broken eagle thing, but like as you're older and at this part of your life, how do you reflect on those? The sadness and then the luck, as you're saying. But how hard was it transitioning to the civilian life when you got back out? Because you've seen a lot.

You've seen everything a lot of people would never dream of, or even like in the worst nightmares, you got to experience like war, war. Was it a hard transition when you got back? I'll tell you, the only explanation I have is that there's somebody up there that liked me. I can't think of anything else and even today you think of it. I'm 102 years old I don't have an acre of pain in my body how many of you can say that

I groaned when I tied my shoes this morning I was like oh you're killing it brother main character you can't make this stuff up you can't make this stuff up you can't make it up

but whatever I've done in life seems to work out for me man I shouldn't be able to remember all this stuff that I've been telling you this is unusual. You are sharp.

That is, it is how sharp, and then you're retaining, it's, you're just, it's sharp. And I think, Brandon had a really good question that was like, as a World War II veteran, what is one of, with the new movies that have came out or any World War II movie like Saving Private Ryan? Every one of those movies were re-looked at they didn't make that stuff up. It's all taken

from what happened. And you can see just little old me, the things that happened just to me. Anything is possible. What's your favorite one? Is there one that stands out to you as something that you were like, that is exactly like how it was? Is there something that you watched and you're like, that was it?

I've never run across anything that came close to what I did. You could take a whole army. You could go down and get everybody's result of a battle that they won. You'd get a different answer from every person I can see that now on the last part I wanted to waste for last your wife Lola you had a beautiful story of a photo you took because you're actually a camera guy right you like cameras oh my goodness it turns into the back cover of the book see that yeah tell that story because i love that look at that guy

that story was great how old were you there i'm 19 19 there that's a good looking man right there that's what his wife thought apparently and judging by wife i think it worked out that picture was taken in north ireland when i was up there in north ireland and got assigned a g3 i met the medical doctor. He kind of liked me. And I had an Argus C2 35mm camera that I was messing with and taking pictures with. He says, if you ever go on a furrow, he says, I've got an 8mm movie camera, crank, hand crank, and take it along and take some pictures for me. So I had a furrow to Edinburgh, Scotland. So I went to that, gave him back his camera. A month later he pulls up to me on a Sunday. I'm around taking pictures of some swans that I wanted to send to my folks in Hope and Minnesota. And Major Ridgeway pulls up there and comes to a screech and he says

Jake I got a bone to pick with you what in the hell I'm a sergeant here and he's a major he's got a bone to pick with me what in the

world did I do now who did you piss off? He says, my wife wants to know who those girls are. I took pictures with somebody. What are you talking

about? He says, when you went to Edinburgh, you borrowed my camera, movie camera. I sent that to my wife. I said, you sent the raw film there? You can't explain that. Bro, you got me in trouble.

What were you filming, Jay? Soul. Soul. Bro, you got me in trouble. What were you filming, Jay? So. Anyways. So, he was out of his Jeep. So I sat in his Jeep and handed him my Argosy 2. And he took that picture. It's in the back of the book there of me and I developed it myself and I said my god that's a good picture so I sent that to my mother and dad in Minnesota. My dad took it into the photo news in Oatana and they put a little blurb in there about me being overseas and stuff.

A girl going to high school, she was in 10th grade. She cut that out and put it in her wallet. And her girlfriend said to her, who is that guy you got in there? She says, that's the guy I'm going to marry. Prescient. By God, they ended the war on December 30th. I got a 45-day furlough to go back home. I'm over there for three years already. I was at the top of the list. I had more points than anybody else because you go for what service you did. And I joined in 1938.

Nobody could pass me there. And by 22 years old, you'd already done seven years of service. It's crazy. It's crazy. So I go home. It takes me 51 days to get home. Then I got 45 days. Man, I never thought I'd see my mother alive. She had leakage in the heart, and at that time nobody would touch her heart. They wouldn't open up her heart and look. She was she died from pneumonia. But she lived to see my two oldest children.

Karlin missed out on that. Karlin is my baby. And Karlin has brought his baby, my granddaughter, Kayla. Oh, they're going to cut to it. We got them on camera right now. I am so blessed to have them in my family. They're my right hand.

We're very blessed to have you here. We're very blessed that they brought you here. I was going to hope to pick up the mail on Sunday. I had the family truck, cab over engine poured, and went by the garage. I saw this friend of mine, car sitting there with the hood up.

Harley's got problems with the car, and he's one of those guys that doesn't know a wrench or a plier or something talking shit we're brought up mechanics of fixing cars I can overhaul any car and

that's the way you had to get by you didn't have the money at that time and that's the way you had to get by. You didn't have the money. At that time, you could get a rebuilt block from a Ford V8, whatever year it was. They rebuilt it for how much money would you say?

New Pest and Trains. What year is this? Barings. This is 1945, 1946? What year, sir? Yeah. No, these were 30s. Oh, 1930s. Up to 40s, yeah. $30. $30. Yeah, I was going to say $30.

$20? No, $40. You could buy a new head for $20. You get a whole rebuild. I think my Raptor motor was $12,000. See what I mean? Times are different.

It's a different time. Yeah. But anyway, I picked up the mail and then when I drove back there, here came carrying the fan belt. Well, I knew very well then the fan belt broke. So I grabbed a crescent wrench, 12 inch crescent. And a tire iron. Generator sits right up on top of the engine. The fan belt goes around that there, around the two water pumps and

into the crankshaft. It's about a 30 second operation. Loosen that one nut, drop the generator down, slip the fan belt on there, take the tire iron, tighten up that generator up there. It's over. So I start back to the truck to throw my tools in there. It's over. So I starts back to the truck to throw my tools in there and he hollyhock calls, hey Jake, he says, you want to meet my sister? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm looking. There's nobody in the car. So I'm thinking they had moved in two farms away from my dad's place. So maybe he's going home and pick up his sister and bring over to my place. So I finished going to the thing. I started to open the truck door and he said, well come on then. He opens the passenger door. I goes over there and there his sister is down under the hood or under the dashboard dashboard and she has a white dish towel she had just washed her hair wrapped around her head no my makeup on she was red as a beet but by God I got a date for next Sunday I took her to Bloom and Prairie Rodeo. She wouldn't even let me hold her hand there for a while.

Well, we got that settled. This is your mother. Yes. Okay. He definitely got that settled. I asked her to marry me. We got a marriage license,

and we held it off for a while. I was going to Dunwoody Institute, taking up electricity and everything. I'm a journeyman lineman. I climb poles like a monkey. I work the hot stuff. But anyway, come November 23rd we got got married and November 23rd coming up will be our 80th anniversary

80 years ago and I'm remembering this stuff she sounds like an amazing woman and you have a beautiful amazing family too now from it. And that's, in the book you told, with that picture, she seen that picture, she cut it out, and then you seen it in her wallet, right? Yes! Oh, yeah, oh yes. We were married for nearly three years and she was pregnant with our first boy. And I have the service station.

Your hands are always dirty in a service station. So I goes home to get something to eat. So I goes in the bathroom, wash my hands. All her stuff is, she's got a new wallet and she took everything out of the old one. And there's that picture of me in the Jeep. You're like, who's this guy? Who is this? So I takes that picture. Lola, where did you get this? Well, I just was going to

high school. That came out in the photo news. I cut it out and put it in there. She's been fangirling for years. My girlfriend asked me, who is that guy? And I told her, that's the guy I'm going to marry. I said, you never told me anything like that. I thought I was chasing you. I have to ask,

so of the photo set that that was taken from, that photo of you, does your wife, she obviously, I'm sure she knows the story now. Did she ever know about the rest of the photos you took in spring break of 1944 that got your buddy in trouble? Oh, yes. Well, she knew I wasn't pure. Tell them. I had to know. I had to know.

The Dairy Queen. When you got your Bronze Star and Miss Dairy Queen. Oh, my God, yes. My God god yes. She didn't like that fact that the Dairy Queen came up and wanted to hug and a kiss from a soldier. Yeah yeah yeah. It was and it was because you received the Bronze Star they did an event for you. And then... You see, I really was ashamed of getting that Bronze Star when I did. They had the families of three

of the recipients of the Bronze Star posthumously and here I'm getting mine pinned on me that wakes you up that wakes you up but you do like I

will always say it's like you as my buddies like the friends I've lost and same for you or the individuals that received those rewards after they passed it's still i guarantee they were so proud of you for every all your accomplishments especially you being alive and being able to receive that well i don't think i'm any different than anybody else and that's why they like you even more you're humble about and that's why they like you even more. You're humble about it. And that's like the most important thought.

Like, is how humble you are about that. But because you show remorse, like a true soldier, you're a true soldier. You didn't want that reward as you just, or award, as you said,

I didn't deserve it. These guys did. And it wasn't a fun time for you. Right. But, but you still have that amazing story that came from it because you received a bronze star for the things you did which again amazing amazing amazing things and not easy things you were putting other people's lives with these your decisions in your hands it's a lot that can weigh on people but then after you got your bra star then you had to receive a kiss from whom the dairy queen miss

dairy queen afterwards and it was going to be on a photo right you say had to like it was a punishment punishment for him. There's one or two other things I want to emphasize here. That's something that isn't in the book. It was after the book. What was that? I got on TikTok. I was talking about going to North Ireland.

My goodness, people over there received TikTok. We got pictures of where I was stationed. Oh, wow. My God, yes. god yes and my granddaughter started corresponding to one of these guys that controlled some of these places i was at they got up a gofundme over there and brought us back to north ireland exactly 80 years ago. That's awesome. That's really cool. And they had the ambassadors from five countries,

France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the United States, giving me accolades. I'm sitting at this big table with a sign, Cheek Larson here, and I'm thinking this is a farce. In the first place, when we drove up to it I said we're interrupting something here. Man there's American soldiers out there marching, 48 star flag flying up above driving around. So we sent my oldest grandson, Mike. Said, Mike, find out what's wrong because we were invited down here.

Come to find out the whole thing was for me. They gave me this accolades, each ambassador. And then when it got down to the last one, the United States ambassador, he gave me the accolades and then he added, this day, March 18th, will forever be called Jake Larson Day. I have a day named for me. How'd that feel? I told you it's crazy. It really is crazy. And we met a young couple up there, a little boy, and they invited us down to their place and I met this girl's brothers, a couple of them anyway, and one or two of his sisters, his wife's sisters, and the youngest boy that I hadn't met, he got my book from his mother and read it and wrote a song about my book. You can get that on YouTube by asking for the song,

Jake Larson, The Luckiest Man in the World, the song about that book. We'll have to put that in a good copyright stroke for it. I'll be honest with you. The two words I was not expecting to hear this entire podcast was YouTube and TikTok. Yeah, I know. I was kind of shell-shocked by that.

That's awesome, though. That's a genuinely cool story. Thank you so, so freaking much for this entire story. From all of us, this has been something we've looked forward to for a long long time been planning it whatever reason our phones can't talk i have no idea why his we cannot text each other a call and we both have iphones well it's probably because you blocked him yeah past that yeah i was like dang it this isn't working. But once we... It's just everything. Truly, thank you for your time.

This amazing story that you just gave us. I didn't know it even lasted. It's been two hours. Didn't feel like it. This is supposed to be a shorter one. This has been an amazing two hours. So we're sorry for wasting your time. I think I'm the one that wasted your time.

Sir, I'm going to choke slam you right now. We are so lucky to have you here, brother. This is this again. I feel like I speak for all of us has been one of the biggest pleasures of this entire podcast is being able to speak with you was fantastic. Absolutely. I got one thing to say to you guys. Let's hear it. Thank you for having me. It's been an honor to be here.

I'm a little old man from Hope, Minnesota, born and raised. And I love the veterans. I thank everybody for their help. Thank you for your help. Do you know I was out of the service from World War II for over a year before I had anybody say thank you for your service well from our from all of us and this is an honor for me this is really an honor thank you thank you thank you thank you for your we thank you thank you for thank you for your service truly truly mean that actually it's a legitimate pleasure sir you know c brand way more respectful dang it i! I didn't stand. Son of a bitch. Thank you, sir. Now I gotta shake my hand again.

I'm gonna shake it one more time. You guys know how to put the grip on an old man. But, actually, what I will do, General Randy George, you gave me an extra coin, and I'm gonna give it to you guys.

I'll give it to you directly, but that's the chief of staff of the army. So he's the, the big wig out there. I have two of his coins. Randy, if you get pissed for me for this, we fighting, but I'm going to give you one of his coins.

Wow. And this and that, and you guys have been amazing. I'm going to have Cody. Well, before we close out, where do we find you on social media? What's your TikTok?

TikTok. TikTok, YouTube, what else, Carla? Instagram. No Facebook. Storytime with Papa Jake. That's what you say. That's the key to get in there.

What do you do there? What do you do there? What do I do there? I tell a story to my granddaughter, Kayla, there. And she does all the preparatory work, putting it in and everything. I've got to tell you how this started. She dances on cruise ships. She dances and sings on cruise ships. When COVID started, cruise ships stopped. She came home. So she came over one day and says, Papa, I put you on my TikTok. What the hell is TikTok?

Man. John left that one. We have to put that in the intro. The hell is TikTok? She says, it's just little stories. She says, I put one of yours on. I said, where'd you get it? She says, when you were telling me, I just put it on my phone. So one

week later, she comes over. Papa, I'm taking you off of my TikTok. You really showed me up. What are you talking about? She says, it took me 10 months to get 10,000 viewers.

You got that in a week. That's amazing. I think right now, what are we at now? 1 million, 1.2 million followers. 1.2 million followers. Now you get to tell a story to everyone. Everyone. Thank you.

Oh, my God. Thank you so much for coming out, brother. I know that our viewers are going to enjoy this story, hopefully as much as we did, because I know I really hate to be a broken record. We really did appreciate you having you here and telling those stories. A pleasure.

If you want to see some of the stuff that I'm on, Google me, Jake Larson. Just say Jake Larson. You can't make this stuff up. You can't. And people say, were you afraid when you were in there? We're soldiers. We wanted to get in there

before that. Man, we didn't want to stay over here for that long without getting results. We're trained. We're trained. You're trained to give your life. That is the truth. All you guys that were in the service, you know that.

You're there expecting to do what is necessary to get things done. Yes, sir. But this is something that's so different. A little farm boy that joined the National Guard infantry and came up to be running Omaha Beach on D-Day? This is crazy. How did he ever get there? Well, right now, I'm thinking,

how did I ever get to have a million viewers? But to me, that is the biggest honor in the world. I've got 22 schools in the United States that are using that book as their history book. I've got a professor of history from Delaware University that came out and interviewed me for four hours. He's using that interview to train his future professors. That interview is available to anybody at Eisenhower College in Kansas. It's on record. That's awesome. I've got two recordings in the congressional library where I

greeted the soldiers for November 11th Veterans Day and that's the maximum they'll let me. I've been there three times. I talk to the students that go to military colleges. They're the ones that really appreciate what I've done. I think we all do. Those kids are just wonderful. Before we... Helen Patton is General Patton's granddaughter. I met her at the 75th anniversary of D-Day over in Belgium. She invited me personally to come out and be with her. Well, we went up to Boston, to Bunker Hill, and then the ship, what's the name of the ship?

USS Constitution. We went on that. And they dressed in their whites. And they rang me out. And that's supposed to be quite an honor for me. So I asked while they're up there listening and I'm talking to them, and I said, has anyone got any questions? And it was just like dead silence. So I pointed to one little cellar girl there in white.

I said, you, what are you thinking right now? She says, I'm thinking I'm going to have to wash my whites tonight. You old dog. PamelaJake's good people. Before we close things out, is there anything that you have the opportunity to, is there anything you'd like to say to the next generation of potential war fighters or just the next generation in general? My God, I'm glad I'm not in your shape, Boots.

They got all this special stuff to kill you. How do you get by that? What in the hell is what Putin? The new war is crazy. That's the kind of thing that worries me. Guys like that are off rockers. There's something to matter with people like that.

We fight these wars. Then we have to rebuild everything that we knocked down. It's, and taking so many of our loved ones and all my friends, people say to me, my god you're a hundred years old i want to live that long i said prepare to lose everybody you know well we are appreciative i know it's a lot i know it's hard especially for being the last living of your entire unit but we appreciate everything you've done for veteran community for the the United States, all these little things.

You are part of that. And we are honored to have you here, sir. Honored to have you. And on top of that, still being willing to come out and talk about this stuff and, and, and come to,

I mean, of all things, our podcast, but continue to go out and do things for the community. I'm sure it's very appreciated. Seriously, thank you from the bottom of all our hearts, brother. We truly mean that. The one thing else I want to tell you here.

I was born and raised on a farm. I didn't get a chance to go to church because our church burned down. The Danish Lutheran church burned down. I didn't get a Bible from the service and I found out one thing. There is a God. I'm living proof for all that I've gone through. How is it possible I don't have aches or pains? I had a stroke. I couldn't move. I'm laying there in bed. My bladder is telling me, Jake, you better get me to the bathroom

or you'll be sorry. And I can't move. We live in the house with my two sons. When the alarm started playing music and I didn't shut it off, my oldest son came down and says, Dad you got problems? I can't move, he says. So he got me to the hospital. I'm a little atrophied in that left hand if you see the difference. How atrophied I am here.

Thumb doesn't work right. How come I got through all that stuff? And I had cardiac arrest. Everybody know cardiac arrest? Yes, sir. Heart attack or stroke. They had to put some sense in me. I got 11

stents in me. How come I'm still alive? Not just alive, but alive. Somebody up there likes what I do. So they're not going to change it. Alive and walking around and being able to walk to your own seat. That's frankly incredible. Flying here.

Yeah, flying across the country. I've been to Europe five times in the past six years. I've got a bunch of friends in North Ireland. I've got a young family in France. And they came over for my 101st birthday. They came over here to me. You deserve that. It's hard for me to realize

these things happening around me. And they keep happening. Even you guys, you wanting me to come down here and talk to you? You're in for a really interesting day because I'm different. I just tell people well I am different. Everything about me is different. I'm a very positive person. No negativity. I don't go negative. And to me, this is probably one of the joys of my life, sitting here talking to you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Cody, do your magic. Guys, thanks for joining the Unsubscribe podcast today. I was joined by Eli double tap,

Papa Jake, Brandon Herrera, myself, Donald operator. Thank you so much for being here guys. Thank you so much. And thank you so much. If you want to tell everyone,

thank you. Thanks everybody. Papa Jake. Appreciate it. Truly, truly, truly, truly,

truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly,

truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, Truly a pleasure brother Truly truly a pleasure Holy moly Holy moly You don't know my name. When you see my face. You don't know my...