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

2021-12-11T11:35:38Z

Underground Premium Content: https://www.jockounderground.com/subscribe Join the conversation on Twitter/Instagram: @jockowillink @echocharles 0:00:00 - Opening 0:02:51 - Jake Larsen 2:06:35 - How to stay on THE PATH. 2:40:34 - Closing Gratitude

AI summary of episode

And nowadays, man, you're going, you got radios, you got so much ammo, you got body armor, you got helmet, you got night vision, you got lasers, you got extra batteries for everything. It's not like it's like freaking jockel rolling up through, you know, you know, you know, you guys talk about like all the gear that you guys carry or whatever. You know, now it sounds like, went, 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, you didn't continue on with school. Yeah, it's, it's crazy to think, you know, now being the age that we are, to think, like how we mentioned his friend in the, in the Air Force, died like 19 years old. But like kind of in the beginning, I was like, I'm not going to say, I'm not going to say, I'm not going to say, I'm not the only one at this table that has an energy drink. You know, speaking of large global corporations, taking over the world, you know, how they, you know, use, you know, what what they do is they do this mass thing where they get the labor for it's cheap as they can. 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? What was it like when you got home, especially before you found out that you were going to get to stay home? It wasn't like a. Like a narrative like a boom landing. That all came out later and that when stuff like that comes out, it's like it is right now. Upgrade sounds like murder, you know, just maybe just, you know, some bad things that are now not bad. I'm like, hey, you know, like the puffy jackets that everyone wears. We think we think like, oh, I went from a, you know, a V6 to a V8. Right, and all this stuff, you know, here that, you know, because there was a lot of reflections of saving private by the way. 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. If I remember correctly was like, you know, he got a balance. It seems like it's a story in my life to be in the right place at the right time. He said I got a Jeep coming up from the motor pool and I'll sit, I'd like to you to ride along with it to look at our next command post to check it out. For like better term kind of vaguely where it'd be like, yeah, I'm dodging bullets. So as you tried to leave, like we mentioned, like I mentioned earlier, there was 47,000 wounded during the battle of the bulge. So we're going to, we got, we got your cover or do you say so. I think it's like, I was going to go either way. So I like banana, okay, cool fine, but it brings things to banana level if it's better than banana, which is the bad thing. I don't know how we made it back to Plymouth, England, but when we got to Plymouth, a full bird kernel came out, called us to attention, and swars to secrecy. 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. He was like, hey, something and he looks boom, like I had no face. You said, I got down to the MRI room and the guy who was operating the MRI machine said, I asked you a few questions before I put you in the machine. Because these people are like, oh, well, you know, we support the environment. If you want to check that one out, I would recommend you don't read it on a plane like JPDNL if you're going to get embarrassed when you're crying. Somebody must like me or like what I do things. And when I raised my hat in salute to them, it's like a response that I got from the guys. Well, either way, the rest of the 99.9% of us that got our Nintendo entertainment system know that. But um, it's like cucumber, where it's like, cool. It's like, about 120 carrying gear, but that's like some effort. Like what happened, you know, I'm thinking, save it private saving private. You also can't get a good at leadership from reading one book one time and thinking you got it. That's where we're like, I got 45 days leave.

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Episode transcript

[00:00:00] This is Jockel Podcast number 311.
[00:00:03] With echo Charles and me, Jockel will in good evening, echo evening.
[00:00:07] June 6, 1944.
[00:00:12] D-Day.
[00:00:15] The largest C-born invasion in history.
[00:00:20] Almost 7,000 ships and landing vessels almost 200,000 naval personnel and 150,000 ground
[00:00:29] troops, attacking the heavily fortified beaches of the Nazis at Lannick Wall in France.
[00:00:40] In doing so, Allied forces suffered over 10,000 casualties, including 4,414 killed in action.
[00:00:53] It was a brutal assault, but the beachhead was secured.
[00:01:01] However, the fighting was not over far from it.
[00:01:05] There was much fighting to be done.
[00:01:11] The fight through the Villars' Bokaj, the assault on the city of Kane and Sherborg, the battle
[00:01:18] to seize the village of St. Lowe, the fight to close the Phaelas, gap the liberation of Paris,
[00:01:25] the advance to the Rhine, Operation Market Garden and the Battle of R. Nemm, that was
[00:01:33] at more brews, overloon, the hurt can forest and all the way to the Battle of the Bulge
[00:01:42] in the Rden's forest.
[00:01:46] The Battle of the Bulge, the largest battle fought by Americans in World War II, December
[00:01:52] 1944 through January 1945, included a million Allied troops, 500,000 Americans resulted
[00:02:03] in more than 47,000 wounded, over 23,000 missing, and 19,000 killed in action.
[00:02:14] In the Battle of the Bulge, once again, victory was achieved.
[00:02:21] Eventually, victory in Europe was achieved and then Japan, and that victory was achieved
[00:02:27] by what is now known as the greatest generation.
[00:02:32] It is an absolute honor for us to have one of those men here with us, a man that landed
[00:02:42] on the D-Day and fought all the way to the Battle of the Bulge.
[00:02:48] His name is Mr. Jake Larson, also known as Papa Jake, and he is here with us, sir.
[00:02:55] Thank you for coming.
[00:02:56] It is an honor to have you here.
[00:02:58] Well, it's a honor to be here.
[00:03:01] Thank you very much for the introduction.
[00:03:05] I don't think I'm any special, but I've all the people I was with.
[00:03:14] I started at a young age when I was 15, I joined the National Card, and I was in
[00:03:27] the K-Playboard and Louisiana for a year when Japanese hit Pearl Harbor.
[00:03:37] So I go back a few years, and as I look back, every person that I was with in three different
[00:03:48] units, company F, 135th Infantry Regiment, company H, or headquarters company, 135th Infantry
[00:03:59] Regiment, and fifth core, every person I was with is gone.
[00:04:11] Why I'm here now?
[00:04:13] In a few days, I'm going to be 99 years old.
[00:04:20] 99 years, I can't believe it myself.
[00:04:28] I don't have aches and pains like other people have.
[00:04:33] No arthritis, no stiff thing.
[00:04:39] I get up out of bed, I'm white awake.
[00:04:43] It's crazy.
[00:04:46] I think my life is governed from above, and I think those up there, who are doing this
[00:04:55] to me, or sitting with me right now.
[00:04:59] I think them for helping me.
[00:05:04] You said you don't think you're anything special, which I guess we could argue with
[00:05:10] that point, but I'm not here to argue with you, sir.
[00:05:12] However, you have to admit that you are lucky, and in fact, you did admit it, you have
[00:05:18] a book that you wrote, which is called the luckiest man in the world, and I think you're
[00:05:23] definitely in the running for it.
[00:05:27] Well, I appreciate that, but you have to read the book.
[00:05:34] I can't sit here and start telling you how lucky I am, but even before the day, I'm
[00:05:45] not before the day.
[00:05:59] Firing every kind of weapon, because I came from the infantry.
[00:06:07] I was down to lands and there was shooting 50 caliber, water cool machine guns at
[00:06:17] towed targets.
[00:06:22] Then British had this little exercise, I've slept in sands, and they were going to
[00:06:32] greet us with live fire.
[00:06:38] Pretty interesting there.
[00:06:41] I was one chosen from G3 to go down there, a sergeant, and I was with others from the landing.
[00:06:53] There was 400 of us on this landing ship.
[00:07:02] This was, we'll get to that part of the story, but what you're talking about this exercise,
[00:07:06] it's slapped in sands.
[00:07:07] This was just a preparatory event to get ready for D-Day, and yet where you were doing
[00:07:14] this training, there was enemy there.
[00:07:16] There was enemy vessels.
[00:07:18] There was two e-boats, Germany boats came in there, and sank to those landing ship tanks,
[00:07:29] right along with the enemy, and shot up the armed guard on top of the one I was in, and
[00:07:37] we had no air.
[00:07:39] We were 400 of us laying there on the floor, suffering from diesel gas, and vomiting.
[00:07:48] I don't know how we made it back to Plymouth, England, but when we got to Plymouth, a
[00:08:00] full bird kernel came out, called us to attention, and swars to secrecy.
[00:08:06] We could not even discuss this when our superior officers were going to be at back.
[00:08:13] And this, I didn't know anything about this or telling anyone about, for 40 years, 40
[00:08:22] years that British brought it up.
[00:08:26] And people started calling me a liar because nothing like that ever happened.
[00:08:34] Well, I was there.
[00:08:37] It happened to me, and I found out that the 400 of those guys that had, there were 795
[00:08:52] casualties there.
[00:08:53] 400 was from the force infantry division, which were supposed to land alongside of us.
[00:09:09] On D-Day, it's unbelievable to think about now.
[00:09:14] No mention of these guys.
[00:09:17] They were all buried over in England, and they were put out on the record as being lost.
[00:09:29] Coming to shore on D-Day.
[00:09:34] Crazy.
[00:09:35] Crazy.
[00:09:36] That's one of the many stories you have in this book, and the book is a phenomenal book.
[00:09:44] I wanted to go back and talk about where you came from and read a little bit from the book.
[00:09:51] And I'll skip around so everyone that's out there, you have to get the whole book.
[00:09:55] I'm only going to read some pieces of it today, but just wanted to talk to you about some
[00:10:00] of the things you talk about in the book.
[00:10:02] You say here, in December 1922, how to huge effect on my life, because I was younger
[00:10:08] than most of my classmates who were born earlier in the year.
[00:10:11] All this meant, however, was that I learned how to get things done.
[00:10:15] Now you grew up with seven brothers and sisters.
[00:10:19] You had Todd Earl, Evan Leo, Murrell, Eleanor, and Bobby.
[00:10:25] And you note in here, you say, I remember asking Leo how I was born.
[00:10:29] And he told me that a crow should on a fence post and the sun hatched me out.
[00:10:35] Whenever I saw a crow, I wondered if it was the one responsible for my birth.
[00:10:40] I was going on a farm, I saw plenty of chickens hatched, so the story made sense to me.
[00:10:45] So I think your brother Leo had you fooled for a little while.
[00:10:50] Well, well, he was ten years old in me.
[00:10:52] And when you're five and somebody is 15, you look for somebody that is going to enlighten you.
[00:11:05] Indeed.
[00:11:06] So you, your parents started off on a homestead in South Dakota and you talk about that
[00:11:10] something here, but then eventually grandma Larson who lived in Hope, Minnesota wrote to my
[00:11:16] father and her husband's after her husband's death, asking if he could move to Hope
[00:11:22] to run the farm.
[00:11:23] My parents packed their bags once again and moved to 240 acre farm, up birth, I got 80 acres
[00:11:29] and we got the rest.
[00:11:31] The downstairs included the living room, along with Pa and Mother's Bedrooms and the
[00:11:35] kitchen, which had a wood stove equipped with burners and oven and a 30 gallon reservoir.
[00:11:41] You say Pa's Bedroom was off the kitchen and mom's room was by the living room.
[00:11:45] They didn't sleep in the same bed, but managed to have eight kids anyways.
[00:11:50] And then all the kids room for upstairs.
[00:11:52] Yeah, yes, yeah.
[00:11:56] And you went through, I know we're going through a pandemic right now, but you went through
[00:12:00] the or your parents began running the farm after the flu pandemic of 1918.
[00:12:07] And that took my only living ground parent after time, it was my grandmother, grandmother
[00:12:19] Larson, her husband, my grandfather died in his 40s.
[00:12:27] He came in, the city came in from the barn, complained that he had a pain in his stomach,
[00:12:35] sharp pain, and that's a lot of horse kicked him in the stomach.
[00:12:41] And I was a victim of a pericitis.
[00:12:45] My oldest brother was a bit, so it was a pericitis that killed him at broke.
[00:12:53] And I went through that same thing.
[00:12:57] So growing up on the farm, you say life on the farm was not easy.
[00:13:03] It was plain hard work.
[00:13:04] Every member of the family had chores.
[00:13:05] We get up at about six a.m. drink hot cocoa, then do chores.
[00:13:09] Like milking cows, caring feed for the cattle, cleaning the stalls, adding in the new
[00:13:12] straw, separating milk and cream, the milk went to the hogs and the cream went to the
[00:13:16] house.
[00:13:17] We poured cream into cans, dropping them into the well to keep them cool.
[00:13:21] We milked 32 cows by hand every morning and night.
[00:13:25] I was about six years old when I started milking cows.
[00:13:31] It's a crazy life, but we didn't think anything about it.
[00:13:38] It was our life.
[00:13:40] And the neighbors were living the same way we were.
[00:13:43] So it was pretty natural.
[00:13:53] We didn't have a lot of extra money for good clothes.
[00:13:56] If I overhauled, it's got a whole in it from where or from a tear.
[00:14:02] My mother was an excellent seamstress and sewing machine operator.
[00:14:09] I had everything done with a pedal sewing machine.
[00:14:16] So you had all that going on.
[00:14:18] Plus you had turkeys, geese, pigs, horses, ducks, and you planted wheat and corn and barley
[00:14:26] and oats and alfalfan soybeans, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, turnups, everything going on.
[00:14:33] We lived out of fruit jars.
[00:14:40] We lived out of fruit jars and they were picking tomatoes when my brother Bob climbed up
[00:14:53] on the windmill and maybe it could bring that up.
[00:14:59] Yeah, that's one of the crazy accidents that you saw when you were growing up.
[00:15:04] Before we get to that, you had a section in here and the section this chapter of the book
[00:15:09] is called Moon Shine.
[00:15:13] And you say, Paul made Moon Shine long before I was born.
[00:15:17] He was accommodating people who needed to drink, but had to seek other means of getting
[00:15:20] it due to prohibition.
[00:15:22] I helped bottle the Moon Shine when I was eight.
[00:15:25] It was double pure, pretty close to 200%.
[00:15:29] We used to still water to cut it down to 85% alcohol.
[00:15:33] You tell a story in here about the first time you got drunk, which was around age five.
[00:15:39] Coffee punch.
[00:15:41] Yes.
[00:15:43] And it's funny.
[00:15:44] We're chocquint about it now, but you say in here at one point it happened.
[00:15:49] One of Dad's so-called friend's turned him in.
[00:15:52] And he got six months in Austin City, jail for selling Moon Shine.
[00:15:57] So the original sentence was up to two years at Leavenworth Penitentiary.
[00:16:01] So your Dad ended up going into jail for a while.
[00:16:04] Six months, six months, so celebrate it.
[00:16:09] There are 25th wedding anniversary in Austin City, jail.
[00:16:18] And I remember on the way down there, we had a Jewat car sedan.
[00:16:27] My brother Leo was a driver.
[00:16:29] I was eight years old at that time.
[00:16:32] And my brother Leo was driving.
[00:16:37] My mother did not drive, but she was alongside.
[00:16:41] And she had a cake and a nursery cake to take along to my dad.
[00:16:48] And she said, Leo said, look, Mom, we're going a mile a minute now.
[00:16:54] Wow, that was moving.
[00:16:58] 60 miles an hour.
[00:17:01] Man, what an advance from the horse, buggy.
[00:17:07] That's amazing.
[00:17:09] You mentioned some of these accidents.
[00:17:12] You mentioned the Windmill one, but it's a whole section.
[00:17:15] You got a whole section in the book of when you're grown up.
[00:17:18] Just called accidents.
[00:17:19] You had your sister get injured by a manure spreader.
[00:17:25] You had a kid that got hit by a lightning.
[00:17:29] You had one of your brothers hit you in the face with a piece of, you know, they're getting
[00:17:34] into power.
[00:17:35] Right, right, right.
[00:17:36] Yeah, I got a lot of dirt.
[00:17:38] You guys were using dynamite when you were kids to blow stumps out of the ground.
[00:17:42] Yeah.
[00:17:43] Yeah, you talked about in here.
[00:17:48] Your brother Bobby, there's a windmill out by your house about 60 feet tall.
[00:17:55] Exactly, 60 foot.
[00:17:58] And there's a plank up 45 feet.
[00:18:01] And Bobby was up there, climbed up there.
[00:18:05] You're telling him to get down before mom comes home.
[00:18:08] And, you know, he says, I don't worry about it.
[00:18:10] I'll be down by the time she gets here.
[00:18:12] And he did.
[00:18:15] Well, one step.
[00:18:17] Again, it's, I guess it's, we're kind of chuckling about it now, but man in the book here,
[00:18:21] let me read a little section from the book.
[00:18:25] They heard him fall ran over and brought him into the house carrying him into the kitchen.
[00:18:29] His eyeballs were out of their sockets on his cheeks and blood shot out of his ears whenever
[00:18:33] his heartbeat.
[00:18:34] He was out cold.
[00:18:36] Leo ran to Uncle Charlie's house because he had a phone to call Dr. Erbel, who put
[00:18:40] his eyeballs back into their sockets and caught into his ears to slow the bleeding.
[00:18:46] The doctor said is broken right arm, splitting it with cardboard.
[00:18:50] I didn't think he could get any worse, but the fall cracked his head too.
[00:18:55] The doctor instructed us get ice packs on his head.
[00:18:58] And we're still had an ice house about a mile from us, so we got the ice from there.
[00:19:01] Mom packed Bobby's ice, head in ice, held on with cloth diapers.
[00:19:07] My mom tied him to the bed so he wouldn't move around feeding him soup and taking care of
[00:19:10] him.
[00:19:11] There's no nurse like a mother.
[00:19:13] He was her baby.
[00:19:14] For what seemed like a month, he lapsed in and out of consciousness until one day he sat
[00:19:18] up and bed asking, where's Jake?
[00:19:20] I want to play with Jake.
[00:19:22] And he was okay.
[00:19:23] Yeah.
[00:19:24] He lived until he was 75.
[00:19:29] He caught every disease known to man.
[00:19:33] And I worked right by him and took, took bass in the same tub, washed tub as he did.
[00:19:44] He had the measles that I never got him.
[00:19:46] I never had a childhood disease until I was 34 years old.
[00:19:52] And I got the lumps from my son, bringing him home from school.
[00:19:58] Yeah, you got some incredible detail about that stuff in the book too.
[00:20:04] You ended up going to grammar school.
[00:20:08] You went to, what is it?
[00:20:09] Lemon township.
[00:20:10] Lemon township.
[00:20:11] Lemon township.
[00:20:12] Lemon township.
[00:20:13] You say you did homework by the carousene lamp light.
[00:20:16] Absolutely.
[00:20:17] Yeah.
[00:20:18] And that's, you're talking about how that lamp light would get dirty.
[00:20:22] You'd have to clean it before you start your homework.
[00:20:24] Oh, yes.
[00:20:25] The, the wick would, would cloud, to, lamp glass.
[00:20:33] No, that was clear glass.
[00:20:35] The lamp.
[00:20:36] Right.
[00:20:37] No, that was, that was better than a candle.
[00:20:41] I guess the candles can only get so bright.
[00:20:47] Characters can light, it's can get pretty bright.
[00:20:49] Well, a lot brighter than anything else.
[00:20:55] It's, that, we thought, nothing else.
[00:20:58] We thought it was a modern age at that time.
[00:21:02] And we, we don't, we don't, we don't want everybody.
[00:21:07] But a, a round ever farmer.
[00:21:11] And we were just farmers.
[00:21:15] Everybody lived the same way.
[00:21:16] They had to go to the same thing.
[00:21:18] That, we weren't any different than anyone else.
[00:21:22] So, if, if you're not any different, you don't know the difference.
[00:21:26] You know, now it sounds like, went, what was normal for you, for you guys back then was,
[00:21:34] when you got done with kind of grammar school, when you got done with eighth grade, sometimes
[00:21:39] you didn't, you didn't continue on with school.
[00:21:41] You didn't go to high school.
[00:21:42] There was no, there's, there's anybody going to high school.
[00:21:46] It was very unusual.
[00:21:47] That, that's someone to go to high school.
[00:21:50] And, and for you, you had Mrs. Jeffery, you sent a note home that said, I recommend that
[00:21:54] you let Jake go to high school because he's a fast learner.
[00:21:57] That, that's it.
[00:21:58] Yeah, whole.
[00:21:59] Do I remember that?
[00:22:00] Like yesterday.
[00:22:02] And how did your dad react to that?
[00:22:04] The hug, my dad says, there's no high school for you.
[00:22:07] You got chores to do.
[00:22:09] You got chores to do.
[00:22:11] So, and eventually it was your brother, Earl, that said.
[00:22:15] Was 14 years older than me, Earl, was.
[00:22:19] And he was a horse man.
[00:22:21] We had 30 horses at that time.
[00:22:23] No, don't know what's the thing, his tractors or anything.
[00:22:26] Everything was done by horse-strong machinery.
[00:22:31] And Earl was, uh, took care of the horses.
[00:22:34] I am, shoot him.
[00:22:37] And the, the doctoring arm, broken from wild horses to, uh, working in the harness.
[00:22:48] And he ended up telling your dad that he would help with the work so that you would
[00:22:52] be able to go to school.
[00:22:53] Yeah, he, he would do my chores for me if, if I got a chance to go to school.
[00:22:58] Yes.
[00:22:59] And he did, I did, I did, I dedicated part of this book to Earl, because I would not be
[00:23:09] here today if he hadn't done it in my chores.
[00:23:15] Then the high school that you went to, you had to go and live somewhere else, right?
[00:23:20] Yeah, 14 miles away, and the roads are not open.
[00:23:24] And the winter time there, it was all done.
[00:23:27] Horses and slaves, so you, you, you can't go 14 miles every day, morning and night,
[00:23:35] in a slaves way.
[00:23:37] Yeah, I had to stay in town with someone.
[00:23:42] And then you ended up in order to pay for your room and board.
[00:23:45] You ended up pretty much working for one of your friends, moms who had a little place to
[00:23:49] stay.
[00:23:50] And you helped out there.
[00:23:51] Oh, one of my lucky breaks again.
[00:23:58] I couldn't go out for any sports.
[00:24:04] And I had to run home at noon and put those, the meals on the table.
[00:24:10] We had eight room and borders that I helped take care of.
[00:24:16] And I started at high school when I was 12 years old.
[00:24:22] I graduated at 12 and been born in December.
[00:24:28] I'm still 12 when I started high school in September.
[00:24:34] And it's crazy people say, whoa, but when you tell people, you're born in 1922.
[00:24:45] I didn't say a tell him that I only had 11 days in 1922, you know, more than December,
[00:24:53] 20.
[00:24:54] So I was only 11 days old in 1922.
[00:24:59] They called it a full year, definitely.
[00:25:04] So I got to go to the book here this section here because it kind of starts off your military
[00:25:11] career.
[00:25:12] In 30, I was walking around town on a Saturday afternoon with my cousin Chick outside
[00:25:17] Roxy Theater.
[00:25:19] We saw a sign.
[00:25:20] Saturday Matt and A Jean-Otchrey America's number one cowboy.
[00:25:23] It cost 10 cents, but we didn't have a penny between us.
[00:25:27] Chick suggested, Jake, let's join the National Guard.
[00:25:31] They pay $12 every three months.
[00:25:33] It sounded like a great way to ensure a steady income.
[00:25:36] But I pointed out, Chick, we're 15.
[00:25:39] You have to be 18.
[00:25:40] Chick was a lot taller and heavier set than me.
[00:25:43] We were like mutton Jeff.
[00:25:45] He answered, when they ask how old we are, just say 18, the worst they can do is kick us out.
[00:25:50] They aren't going to arrest us.
[00:25:53] So we walked into the office at the armory and I still remember the stocky captain's name,
[00:25:57] Captain Hugh H. Soper.
[00:26:00] He looked up from his desk asking, what can I do for you?
[00:26:04] Sir, we'd like to join the National Guard.
[00:26:06] I was expecting him to ask how old we were and I was ready to say 18.
[00:26:11] He looked me in the eyes and asked, what year were you born?
[00:26:14] Wow, I had to think quick. 1922, 1923.
[00:26:17] 1919, sir.
[00:26:20] Chick added easy since he was just standing behind me.
[00:26:22] He just followed suit and answered the same thing.
[00:26:25] Soper stamped out our enlistment papers and we were in.
[00:26:30] It was as easy as that, no physical or test required.
[00:26:33] I joined company F-135th Infantry Regiment of the 34th Infantry Division, the Red Balls.
[00:26:41] So you're 15 years old?
[00:26:43] 15 years old.
[00:26:44] Were you, did you look young?
[00:26:46] No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
[00:26:49] Farmers looked rough.
[00:26:50] Okay, so you looked a little bit older.
[00:26:52] We looked older.
[00:26:54] And at that time, the National Guard, this is when Hitler was taking the sedate in
[00:27:01] the end and had just an extra Austria in 1938.
[00:27:08] So our country was strictly against war.
[00:27:16] Strictly against war.
[00:27:18] They didn't want anything to do with going to Europe and messing up with Hitler.
[00:27:25] Hitler was pretty well known.
[00:27:29] He wasn't known at that time of all the killings and labor camps that he had were forced
[00:27:39] labor.
[00:27:43] That all came out later and that when stuff like that comes out, it's like it is right now.
[00:27:51] It is hard to believe that a person can be that way.
[00:27:57] So the National Guard was trying to fill its units to get up to full strength so that
[00:28:07] in case of war they had strength in the National.
[00:28:13] The Army was only about 150,000 strong at that time.
[00:28:19] The whole Army in the United States was 150,000 and that's when President Roosevelt put
[00:28:32] 28 or 29 National Guard units in the Federal Service.
[00:28:39] That was February 10, 1941.
[00:28:44] I had just turned 18 in December 20, 1940 and we put in the Federal Service and shipped
[00:28:58] down to Camp Clayborne, Louisiana.
[00:29:02] So my god, I had nearly a year and there went through the Louisiana maneuvers, belly
[00:29:13] up, belly down, in Chigur, in Festa land, poisonous snakes.
[00:29:26] What a place.
[00:29:27] It was a hell hole.
[00:29:29] You say in here I learned as much about training for war combat as I did about coping
[00:29:34] with Chigur's, ticks and intense humidity.
[00:29:37] Oh, god, it was terrible.
[00:29:41] And so that you left for that February 1941.
[00:29:46] So we still weren't out war yet.
[00:29:49] But the country looked like we were heading in that direction.
[00:29:53] I know you mentioned in here one of your friends, Carlos Boke.
[00:29:57] Yeah, Carlos Boke, he told me Jake, let's join the Air Force.
[00:30:00] I asked him why and he said the money is better and we'll get to be officers.
[00:30:04] I thought that sounded good.
[00:30:05] At the time I was a corporal getting $42 a month while a private earned $30 a month.
[00:30:11] Carlos and I decided to try and enlist.
[00:30:12] So we went through the physicals and written tests.
[00:30:14] The physicals involved in I exam.
[00:30:16] Carlos passed his.
[00:30:17] But they told me I was colorblind.
[00:30:19] I had no idea that I found out my brother Todd was also colorblind.
[00:30:23] So you tried to join the Air Force, but you couldn't see colors.
[00:30:26] They wouldn't let you in.
[00:30:27] So you stayed in the Army.
[00:30:28] So I stayed in the Army.
[00:30:30] And I'm here today.
[00:30:31] There's another thing, luckiest man in the world.
[00:30:35] I turned out to be colorblind.
[00:30:37] I said the Army didn't know that.
[00:30:41] I had never had a physical for colorblindness.
[00:30:45] And the Air Corps didn't tell them that I was colorblind.
[00:30:50] But it's an interesting thing there.
[00:30:56] If you want me to relate on Carlos Boke, I will tell you that I am lucky probably that I
[00:31:07] didn't join the Air Force.
[00:31:11] Get into the aviation.
[00:31:14] Carlos Boke died on his graduation day in a flyby to planes collided.
[00:31:27] And burned.
[00:31:28] They don't even know which body they ship back to Barry.
[00:31:36] Here I am.
[00:31:38] He was 19 years old at the time.
[00:31:41] Here I am.
[00:31:42] Going on 99, with a family, a family, grandchildren, great grandchildren.
[00:31:59] Can you question why I say I'm the luckiest man in the world?
[00:32:05] No questions from my side of the table sir.
[00:32:14] So Pearl Harbor happens, December 7, 1941.
[00:32:21] I kind of wanted to portray a little bit of your, let's say, you have a little rebellious spirit.
[00:32:29] You had a little rebellious spirit with you her younger.
[00:32:33] Arnold Schmidt, 135th Infantry Commanding Officer announced that all the company clerks
[00:32:38] he had authority over were authorized 15 day furlough.
[00:32:41] So you were going to get 15 days of leave.
[00:32:43] Now Captain Eric, it's an Ericson told you, hey, get everyone set.
[00:32:50] Only give people seven days.
[00:32:52] And you told him sir, everyone will have to turn around and come home before they even
[00:32:55] get there.
[00:32:56] And he said, Corporal, I'm your commanding officer, you will do as you are told.
[00:33:01] And so you do what you're told except for on your papers, you give yourself 15 days of leave.
[00:33:08] So you can get back home spend some time then come back.
[00:33:11] And he just went through the stack of papers and signed them all.
[00:33:14] And you took your 15 days.
[00:33:17] That changed my life.
[00:33:22] Captain Ericson was killed in a North Africa invasion.
[00:33:26] So 34th Division went down to North Africa at Morocco or Algeria there.
[00:33:33] And he was killed down there.
[00:33:37] And the company clerk is close to your captain.
[00:33:40] So in the meantime, I got transferred in to fifth corps.
[00:33:49] Right, he was trying to punish you by giving you.
[00:33:52] He was trying to punish me.
[00:33:53] He was giving you away from him.
[00:33:55] Now he was going to be climbing poles and string and wires, according to Captain Ericson.
[00:34:06] But then you ended up going into the G3 into operations.
[00:34:13] I was only operation sergeant there.
[00:34:18] Now is that because you knew how to type?
[00:34:20] Yes, that's because I was an expert type.
[00:34:24] How did you learn how to type?
[00:34:25] I had one year of typing in high school.
[00:34:28] So you didn't elect him.
[00:34:32] I was the only boy in a class of 30.
[00:34:38] And ended up being an extremely important skill for your whole life.
[00:34:41] It changed my life.
[00:34:44] Being able to type.
[00:34:46] You say here, being part of the G3.
[00:34:48] So G3 for people that don't know.
[00:34:49] This is operations.
[00:34:50] These are people that are coming up with the plans and directing how these operations are
[00:34:54] going to go.
[00:34:56] And you say here, man, being a part of G3 is a whole different world.
[00:35:00] Instead of reporting to a captain or lieutenant, I had to report to a full bird colonel or
[00:35:05] a lieutenant colonel.
[00:35:07] You said once I was part of G3, I met who would become one of my closest friends while
[00:35:11] in the service, corporal Madison Rich.
[00:35:14] He was from New Jersey and was a skilled type as just like myself.
[00:35:18] You said when I had free time, this is by the way, this is when you're fast forward
[00:35:21] past this part.
[00:35:22] You're overseas, you're now in Ireland and England and you guys are preparing for the
[00:35:28] invasion.
[00:35:29] You say when I had free time, I'd hang out with my other pals, corporal Kray and staff
[00:35:34] sergeant Robby Robert Jeffrey.
[00:35:36] Kray was the cochiest Irishman I ever met while Jeffrey was subdued.
[00:35:39] I was only 19 at the time and they were both much older than me because of my slight
[00:35:45] stature.
[00:35:46] They nicknamed me Bony As.
[00:35:48] Well, I was five foot 10, way to 120 pounds.
[00:35:56] I luckiest man in the world.
[00:36:03] When I landed on D-Day, we were under a lot of fire.
[00:36:06] I had two of those M-G-42 machine guns shooting at me.
[00:36:14] They only shoot 1200 rounds a minute each one.
[00:36:20] So when you double it, it's quite a thing.
[00:36:26] But the Germans were not used to shooting at toothpicks.
[00:36:33] I made it through.
[00:36:37] Before you get to D-Day, you have one incident that I just, I had to bring up because it
[00:36:43] is another thing that had a big impact on your life.
[00:36:47] You were taking some pictures and there was a major that you were with.
[00:36:50] And you said he had gotten out of his Jeep while he was talking to me.
[00:36:57] So I sat down in the Jeep and handed him my 35 millimeter Argus camera.
[00:37:02] Here major, can you take a picture of me sitting in your Jeep?
[00:37:04] What's funny about the picture is that it was the only Jeep I ever sat in while I was
[00:37:09] in the service.
[00:37:10] I sent that picture along with other pictures to my mother, my dad looked through them and
[00:37:13] picked the picture of me sitting in the Jeep to bring to the photo news.
[00:37:18] They liked it well enough to put in their paper, adding a blurb about Corporal Jake
[00:37:23] Larson in North Ireland.
[00:37:24] I was unaware of it at the time, but that picture being published in the paper would
[00:37:29] lead me to the love of my life and we'll get to that later.
[00:37:35] At this point, now you guys are, and again, I'm going to fast forward a little bit.
[00:37:39] And now you leave to go to Port Smith to start the planning for Port Smith.
[00:37:45] Port Smith, okay.
[00:37:46] I'll say it that way.
[00:37:48] So you guys go to Port Smith to start the planning.
[00:37:53] You're promoted to Sergeant.
[00:37:57] This is where you participate in that operation or the training operation that slapped
[00:38:03] in Sands, what you talked about earlier, just an unbelievable travesty.
[00:38:08] You go on this training mission.
[00:38:11] These ships are filled with soldiers to practice D-Day and the Germans actually sank some
[00:38:20] of those ships to those ships.
[00:38:23] 795 people killed before D-Day even happened during a training operation.
[00:38:29] One month before D-Day.
[00:38:34] The Americans that died during that, they reported, they told the families that they died
[00:38:39] during D-Day.
[00:38:40] Absolutely.
[00:38:41] Yeah.
[00:38:42] And that brings us to D-Day.
[00:38:50] And I just want to read some of this and just get your feedback on it.
[00:38:57] D-Day was supposed to be June 5th, so all the troops were loaded into ships the day before
[00:39:01] including me, the sea was getting rough from rougher so they called it off and we had to return.
[00:39:06] They had a British weathermaster who told Eisenhower there would be a break in the weather
[00:39:10] in the morning, so he decided to have the invasion go on June 6th.
[00:39:16] By the time of the change, I hadn't slept for 72 hours just running on adrenaline.
[00:39:21] There are 7,000 ships on the move with 158,000 troops and our destination about 170 miles
[00:39:27] away, everywhere you look there was a ship and they were going to different beaches.
[00:39:32] Everything was programmed.
[00:39:34] I went in with the members of the first Infantry Division on the USS Ancon, which was
[00:39:40] the command ship, about 8 miles from shore, the landing craft pulled up alongside us so
[00:39:45] we had to climb down rope ladders into the boat carrying 75 pounds of gear and our rifles.
[00:39:53] When we dropped into the landing craft which was bobbing up and down in three to four foot
[00:39:58] waves, we see images produced by computers to simulate what it looked like with all those
[00:40:09] ships on D-Day.
[00:40:11] That must have been an incredible sight.
[00:40:13] It's even harder to describe how do you describe it?
[00:40:23] Ever place you look, there's a ship and behind it, another ship and behind that more ships,
[00:40:30] more ships, more ships.
[00:40:34] How do you crowd 7,000 ships into a small area like that there?
[00:40:44] I'm on the Ancon, that's where I didn't have a word.
[00:40:50] The commander, a little farm boy from Houghton, Minnesota.
[00:40:58] Only graduated high school.
[00:41:05] I worked on the invasion with Colonel Hill.
[00:41:14] I got the brown star for what I did, worked on.
[00:41:20] I didn't even know I was going to get it.
[00:41:23] But it's crazy.
[00:41:26] Did you guys, since you were part of the planning, you must have had very good awareness
[00:41:34] of what you were going into in terms of the enemy positions?
[00:41:38] Oh, yeah.
[00:41:39] It seems like you would have known even more what you were facing than the normal soldiers
[00:41:44] who maybe weren't as involved in the planning.
[00:41:47] I was not a normal soldier at that time.
[00:41:51] I was the highest classified person you can get.
[00:41:57] I was top secret, bigot, B-A-G-O-T.
[00:42:02] Most people don't even know what bigot is, but that's the highest rating you can get.
[00:42:08] Think about it.
[00:42:09] A little farm boy from Houghton, Minnesota.
[00:42:15] When I told people that afterwards that I was classified top secret bigot.
[00:42:20] Yeah, what's that?
[00:42:21] Yeah, no, I didn't mean anything to them.
[00:42:28] And this was your first combat operation, was D-Day?
[00:42:32] Absolutely.
[00:42:33] It was the first for all of our troops.
[00:42:38] What was the fear level for you?
[00:42:42] There was no fear level.
[00:42:43] We'd been over the England then for two and a half years.
[00:42:50] We'd been over there planning this thing.
[00:42:56] And we wanted to get it done.
[00:43:00] Get it done.
[00:43:01] They kept putting it off and putting it off.
[00:43:04] And finally, when you got the goal, the weather wasn't very good.
[00:43:09] But in the longland of weather kind of helped us, it took to Germans off guard.
[00:43:19] And Rama, who was guarding that part, went home to celebrate his wife's birthday.
[00:43:30] You say here, I was the last off, last one off the ship when they dumped us out too far.
[00:43:34] We marched off the ramp into the water and all walked in a line.
[00:43:38] I made my way into the icy water that reached up to my chin, holding my rifle over
[00:43:42] my head.
[00:43:43] But I wasn't thinking about the water's temperature.
[00:43:45] I just wanted to get through it alive.
[00:43:48] The section of shore I landed on was known as Easy Red.
[00:43:51] We were supposed to be able to walk through the surf and find bomb holes, which would
[00:43:55] be shelters for us.
[00:43:57] The air core totally missed Omaha Beach, so there was no protection for us.
[00:44:02] Those beaches were all mined.
[00:44:04] I would find out later in life that there were millions of mines on that beach.
[00:44:09] If you stepped on one of those babies, it was a quick trip to heaven.
[00:44:12] I was more afraid of stepping on a mine than being shot at.
[00:44:16] I ran toward the cliffs, making sure to step in the same footprints as the man in front
[00:44:21] of me made.
[00:44:23] What the hell am I doing here?
[00:44:25] The fog pounded in my head as I dodged bullets determined to stay focused on reaching
[00:44:29] the safety of the cliffs.
[00:44:32] How did a simple foreign boy from Minnesota land on Omaha Beach on D-Day?
[00:44:38] Machines guns were firing in all directions with bodies everywhere.
[00:44:42] Those MG-42 machine guns shot 1,200 to 1,500 rounds per minute.
[00:44:48] I ran and dodged, finally making my way to a sand berm.
[00:44:52] The bullets were blasting off the berm as I ducked into it.
[00:44:56] I wasn't going to get out of that whole no matter what.
[00:45:00] I smoked at that time and I had my cigarettes in this plastic bag so they wouldn't get
[00:45:04] wet.
[00:45:05] Unfortunately, I didn't have a match.
[00:45:07] I remember then that I started shaking.
[00:45:10] Before that moment I had felt no fear.
[00:45:13] I turned to my left and saw soldier lying down with his back toward me.
[00:45:18] I called out, hey buddy, do you have a match?
[00:45:22] Then I noticed there was no head underneath the helmet.
[00:45:27] That got me moving.
[00:45:28] Jake moved.
[00:45:29] I told myself, I got up and dashed for the bottom of the cliff wall about 200 yards
[00:45:34] away.
[00:45:35] I remember saying to myself, Jake, what the hell are you doing here?
[00:45:38] You're running for your life, so nobody can shoot at you, but everybody can shoot at
[00:45:41] you.
[00:45:43] I only weighed 120 pounds soaking wet, so that was an advantage since it's hard to shoot
[00:45:47] at a toothpick.
[00:45:49] After what seemed like an eternity, I made it to the cliff wall where I was safe.
[00:45:55] From what I've read over 2,500 died at Omaha Beach that day.
[00:46:01] That was on easier read.
[00:46:06] I went in on that's where I went in.
[00:46:16] I went back to Omaha Beach on the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
[00:46:28] I had five different TV stations, BBC, France 1, France 2, CBS, NBC, waiting at the cemetery
[00:46:50] of an Omaha Beach cemetery.
[00:46:52] I have never been in a cemetery after time, and they said, we want you to walk out there
[00:47:02] and look at one of the tombstones and stand out while we take pictures.
[00:47:13] I walked out there.
[00:47:14] I told you, I came in with a part of the first division, the 16th infantry regiment.
[00:47:22] And the first tombstone I landed, looked at, said that, here this private from the 16th
[00:47:35] infantry regiment was buried there.
[00:47:40] I'm sending there with my hat on a coat.
[00:47:45] I didn't know that you don't salute.
[00:47:51] So I raised my right hand with my hat above my head.
[00:47:58] That picture with viral all over the world.
[00:48:08] It's like the ghosts of those guys buried there that day were down there watching me.
[00:48:20] And when I raised my hat in salute to them, it's like a response that I got from the
[00:48:32] guys.
[00:48:34] After all, I'm not the hero.
[00:48:37] Those guys that are buried there in the heroes.
[00:48:40] I made it true because they put their life up for me.
[00:48:48] I keep telling people.
[00:48:50] I am not the hero.
[00:48:53] I'm a hero too.
[00:48:54] I told you.
[00:48:55] I changed from hero to hero too.
[00:48:59] They said, what is a hero too?
[00:49:01] I mean, here to tell you the story of my life and it's unbelievable.
[00:49:07] But I'm here because of that.
[00:49:12] That's what's got me through life.
[00:49:18] So when you got to the cliff and now you're, so you're, I guess you're a little bit out
[00:49:26] of the enemy fires.
[00:49:27] They're still in fire.
[00:49:28] They can't fire them.
[00:49:29] They can't fire them.
[00:49:30] I don't understand themselves.
[00:49:31] Got it.
[00:49:32] But you still have to push through barbed wire and the guys start getting out the Bangalore
[00:49:35] torpedoes, right?
[00:49:36] Yeah.
[00:49:37] And that was a dangerous one because the guy to shove those Bangalore torpedoes up two of them
[00:49:44] were killed right there.
[00:49:46] But as quick as they went off and we started to go up and got behind the Germans, they
[00:49:53] have no protection.
[00:49:55] They cleared out fast.
[00:49:58] So it didn't take long.
[00:50:00] And then we got to set up, I have periods of total blankness in this.
[00:50:08] This is one of them.
[00:50:09] The next thing I knew, we had set up the command post.
[00:50:14] But I don't even remember setting it up.
[00:50:17] And I was, they get a foxhole with corpile rich.
[00:50:24] And that's a kind of an interesting thing too.
[00:50:29] If you.
[00:50:30] Yeah.
[00:50:31] So you're setting up this command post.
[00:50:33] You don't remember a lot of it.
[00:50:36] And you say, I was relieved to see my good friend, corpile Madison Rich, who arrived in
[00:50:40] the different land in craft and I.
[00:50:43] Right there must have been amazing to see all these guys get killed.
[00:50:48] And you happen to one of your other friends from a different land in craft happens to make
[00:50:52] it.
[00:50:55] He stayed in the foxhole next to mine.
[00:50:57] And I had my litter down to my foxhole.
[00:51:00] A litter was just a canvas claw fast between two removable sticks on either side.
[00:51:04] I slept on top of it to keep moisture and dampness off my body.
[00:51:08] We didn't have sleeping bags.
[00:51:09] We made our own with wool blankets provided calling them fart sacks, which by the way, we
[00:51:14] still called sleeping bags fart sacks in the military when I was in.
[00:51:19] Once I found out, I had to work that night.
[00:51:22] I told Corpore Rich, you can sleep in my foxhole tonight.
[00:51:25] I've got the litter in there.
[00:51:27] Thanks, Jake.
[00:51:28] I got my fart sack all made up now.
[00:51:30] I'm not changing it.
[00:51:32] Nevertheless, he laid his M1 rifle on my litter and went to sleep.
[00:51:37] That night, the Germans wanted to see what we were up to, so they sent over reconnaissance
[00:51:41] planes, dropping flares to take pictures after midnight.
[00:51:44] They lit up the beach light daylight.
[00:51:46] Our anti-aircraft started shooting at up at those planes.
[00:51:49] Well, what goes up must come down.
[00:51:51] So when Maddie Rich got up in the morning, he went to pick up his rifle and my foxhole
[00:51:56] only for it to fall in two pieces.
[00:51:59] The strap-in-all from our men shooting at the Germans had hit his rifle during the night.
[00:52:03] Talk about luck.
[00:52:05] It had called on me to work that night and he's fortunate he didn't take me up on my
[00:52:09] offer of sleeping there.
[00:52:12] So there you go.
[00:52:15] It seems like it's a story in my life to be in the right place at the right time.
[00:52:24] Yeah, so in your bed where you were going to sleep that night, the rifle that was sitting
[00:52:30] on your bed.
[00:52:31] That was a plan I'd have.
[00:52:33] It fell in two, yeah.
[00:52:36] If ever some M1 grand, that's a pretty hefty gun, pretty hefty rifle.
[00:52:48] It's a ways eight pounds.
[00:52:52] So it had to take some kind of a direct hit to be able to fall in two.
[00:53:00] And during this time you're supposed to be working during the day and then getting some
[00:53:05] sleep at night.
[00:53:06] But what's happening for these first five, six, seven days, you're working during the
[00:53:10] day and then at night you all have to move.
[00:53:13] So you're not getting any sleep at all.
[00:53:15] Well, I'm actually all took place during the day.
[00:53:23] Very little action during the night.
[00:53:30] So when I tried to sleep during the day, the Germans would shower.
[00:53:38] I was right up to say, say, low then was the place where we were trying to capture.
[00:53:46] And they told us, it's going to take a few days to capture.
[00:53:51] Focus a month.
[00:53:53] Focus a month.
[00:53:54] The Germans don't like to give up.
[00:53:58] And they are great fighters.
[00:54:01] Man, we had our hands full.
[00:54:04] But we covered a book on this podcast called The Clay Pigeons, the St.
[00:54:10] Low by Glover Johns, who was one of the officers that fought there.
[00:54:15] And so you were there for that.
[00:54:17] You say about a month after the day we were supposed to capture a little town called St.
[00:54:21] Low.
[00:54:22] We moved from the cliffs to the hedgerodes of the town.
[00:54:25] We planned to capture it without the lab, but it took us about a month because the Germans
[00:54:28] put up such stiff resistance.
[00:54:31] We put out orders and then different units under our command carried them out.
[00:54:35] At that time, other infantry units had landed on D. Day with us and those troops were under
[00:54:39] our control.
[00:54:41] We would storm them or open fire.
[00:54:44] The Germans didn't count. They didn't factor into the equation.
[00:54:47] You have to take that position in war.
[00:54:49] If they're in the way or on the road, you just rush them off.
[00:54:53] That's why so many civilians were killed during the war.
[00:54:57] We tore the hell out of St. Low.
[00:55:00] I spent most of my time during the daylight thinking of getting some sleep.
[00:55:03] But again, we were always on the move.
[00:55:05] We were captured after we captured St. Low.
[00:55:07] I went to bed in the morning and woke up at 2am, unable to remember how I got there.
[00:55:12] I had been numb, thinking only of sleep, sleep, sleep.
[00:55:16] Each soldier carries a tent shell, half tent shell.
[00:55:20] So I put my shelter half in a ditch and there was three feet high next to the road.
[00:55:26] If you don't have another soldier with you, you have to make do with you half a tent.
[00:55:30] I was thinking about brushing my teeth and shaving.
[00:55:32] I noticed another soldier walking around carrying something.
[00:55:35] I took the line around my helmet and poured some water into it.
[00:55:38] So I could brush my teeth and was just about to shave when one of the soldiers asked,
[00:55:43] hey, what the hell are you doing here?
[00:55:44] I explained I'm going to shave.
[00:55:45] I work at night.
[00:55:46] I just woke up.
[00:55:48] He said this is supposed to be all clear.
[00:55:49] There's a 155 mm shell laying on the road and we're sandbagging it to detonate it.
[00:55:58] So there you are going to brush your teeth and there's an exploded shell.
[00:56:02] You happen to run into these guys.
[00:56:03] I don't think if that thing went off, I don't think even the luck would get you through
[00:56:15] that one.
[00:56:16] No, no, not the one.
[00:56:17] But again, my luck held off.
[00:56:19] You're lucky, I hope.
[00:56:20] Here's another one.
[00:56:25] Another piece of evidence for the luckiest man in the world.
[00:56:30] Colonel Hill asked me what I was doing.
[00:56:31] I said I was thinking about getting something eat.
[00:56:33] He said I got a Jeep coming up from the motor pool and I'll sit, I'd like to you to
[00:56:38] ride along with it to look at our next command post to check it out.
[00:56:42] For Colonel Hill, I would do anything.
[00:56:44] The guy saved my life a few times by putting me in charge of the night shift.
[00:56:47] I responded gladly, sir.
[00:56:50] We had a hand drawn map of the area.
[00:56:52] A private drove the Jeep as I looked at the map.
[00:56:55] Suddenly I realized we missed the turnoff.
[00:56:57] So I said to the private, I think we missed the turnoff.
[00:56:59] It was there was a ditch there.
[00:57:02] The culvert indicated the road's entrance.
[00:57:05] So just as he got the Jeep turned around, another Jeep turned down that road, hit a
[00:57:10] line line and blew up.
[00:57:13] That was the place we were supposed to turn.
[00:57:16] Somebody was looking out for me, I swear.
[00:57:18] I went, we went back to Colonel Hill, reporting the incident.
[00:57:22] He uttered you're like a cat with nine lives.
[00:57:27] Yeah, you're using up some of those nine lives in these events.
[00:57:39] Didn't get a scratch.
[00:57:42] Didn't get a scratch.
[00:57:43] I came up to the whole battle of the boulders and I was one of the first ones after the
[00:57:52] battle of the boulders.
[00:57:54] Think about it.
[00:57:55] One of the first ones to get leave to come home before the war is over.
[00:58:01] 45 days.
[00:58:05] Unbelievable lucky.
[00:58:08] But I had a, it was on the point system.
[00:58:13] Right.
[00:58:14] I had 127 points.
[00:58:16] And you were at the top of the list.
[00:58:17] That was off the top of the list.
[00:58:19] Because the points were based on how long you've been there.
[00:58:22] You've been in the service and all along overseas.
[00:58:25] Yeah.
[00:58:26] Yeah.
[00:58:27] Yeah.
[00:58:28] And before you even get to the battle of the boulds shortly after that, we moved through
[00:58:33] a narrow valley called the Phalays Gap.
[00:58:35] Phalays Gap, where we had a German army partially trapped.
[00:58:41] The English came in from the west while we came in from the southeast.
[00:58:46] Part of Patan's troops was there.
[00:58:48] Plus the five corps.
[00:58:49] We captured 50,000 German soldiers and killed nearly that many.
[00:58:53] We've been barred to them from three sides when we got there.
[00:58:56] The shooting was over.
[00:58:58] That's the first time I ever walked over dead people and around dead horses.
[00:59:03] When we landed on Omaha Beach, I'd never stepped over any of our soldiers.
[00:59:08] That's like stepping on your brother.
[00:59:10] I didn't get the same feeling walking over the enemy.
[00:59:15] What was the feeling about Patan?
[00:59:25] Did you guys all know who he was?
[00:59:26] He was legendary back then for you guys?
[00:59:30] Well, Patan.
[00:59:32] Patan first Army was the one that landed on the day.
[00:59:41] First Army.
[00:59:43] Fifth Corps and 7th Corps were the two corps under First Army.
[00:59:51] Fifth Corps had Omaha Beach, all of Omaha Beach.
[00:59:57] I was the only operation sergeant in Fifth Corps, G3.
[01:00:03] So, take a look at this little farm boy from Hopen and Minnesota.
[01:00:15] Me, me, a school, please.
[01:00:16] 100 occupants there.
[01:00:20] Farmers.
[01:00:23] Was in charge of that every night?
[01:00:26] Take a look.
[01:00:29] How is that possible?
[01:00:33] As Earl volunteered to do my chores for me.
[01:00:37] And I took typing one year.
[01:00:42] It's crazy when you look back, haven't it?
[01:00:46] It's plain crazy.
[01:00:51] It's hard for me to understand how.
[01:00:55] It's hard for me to be here.
[01:00:57] I'm going to be turning 99.
[01:01:00] I cannot believe that I am here.
[01:01:05] I'm the only one left of all the people I was in the service with.
[01:01:11] There's nobody else that I was in with alive.
[01:01:15] And sitting here, going to be 99, without an acrobat pain in my body, how is that possible?
[01:01:25] There's got to be an answer somehow.
[01:01:29] And I say, there is a God.
[01:01:34] That's my favorite saying, there is a God.
[01:01:38] And he certainly looks out for you.
[01:01:39] That's for sure.
[01:01:40] He's been taking care of me great.
[01:01:45] The next thing that you did was to capture a Paris, the liberation of Paris.
[01:01:52] What was that like?
[01:01:54] There was another thing, the free French, when we came in, the Germans had gave up,
[01:02:04] the generals called off.
[01:02:08] He wasn't fight back.
[01:02:10] But the free French came in there and while the Germans were evacuating, they came in there
[01:02:15] and threw those maltoff cocktails into their trucks and everything.
[01:02:24] But if you had been treated like the French were treated for four years, I have a different
[01:02:37] view, see, come on in.
[01:02:40] I wasn't subject to any of the Germans or anything.
[01:02:45] We were just to fight them.
[01:02:47] So it was kind of hard for me to realize that these people suffered.
[01:02:59] There were thousands and thousands of them who were drafted and put into the army with
[01:03:09] the Germans.
[01:03:13] Being an American and with the liberties that we have, it's hard to transform your opinions
[01:03:30] when you're being killed and shot out and abused.
[01:03:38] I just don't know how to put it.
[01:03:42] And you as a foreign boy from Hope, Minnesota ended up having a pretty nice office once
[01:03:50] you got in the general.
[01:03:52] Potent Marshall Potent.
[01:03:54] So often.
[01:03:56] How did things like this happen?
[01:04:03] It's crazy.
[01:04:04] So Marshall Potent was the guy in charge of the Vicky French.
[01:04:11] The Vicky French.
[01:04:12] He was the one that went through the first war.
[01:04:23] I sat at his desk and it was loaded with metals of all kinds.
[01:04:30] Now the French gave me the legion of honor.
[01:04:40] In 1924, I would have the legion of honor.
[01:04:50] In 2015 February, we went to San Francisco to the French.
[01:05:02] There were officials there.
[01:05:07] There was ten of us that sat there and we were each present at what the legion of honor.
[01:05:16] Besides the legion of honor, I was the only one to receive the French retired soldier badge.
[01:05:33] I'm an honorary French retired soldier.
[01:05:41] That's that little red white and blue one right there.
[01:05:49] It's one of the, I'm proud of that.
[01:05:55] The I'm being proud.
[01:05:56] I'm mostly proud to be American, but the French recognized that I had been working for
[01:06:06] them and gave me that long to legion of honor.
[01:06:13] I don't know any other soldier in American Army.
[01:06:18] I have to receive that honor, retired French soldier.
[01:06:26] That's definitely an honor.
[01:06:30] Even as you say, the Germans kind of gave up Paris, but it wasn't over yet.
[01:06:38] You had even more close calls.
[01:06:40] You say this here as if we moved out of Paris, we ended up in Luxembourg.
[01:06:45] As I work nights after I get some rest during the day, I'd have some free time to walk
[01:06:49] on the cobblestone streets.
[01:06:51] We were in a valley and I came to an intersection at the foot of a hill.
[01:06:54] I had just started crossing the road when an English spit fire and a German measure Schmidt
[01:07:00] right on its tail shot over the hill.
[01:07:03] The measure Schmidt firing its cannon at the spit fire.
[01:07:07] When they came down the hill, the cannon shot right in front of me, shattering the cobblestones
[01:07:12] into pieces.
[01:07:14] I landed on my face in the cobblestones and got the hell out of there.
[01:07:18] Once again, it was unbelievable how lucky I was.
[01:07:27] I say this.
[01:07:28] Close only counts in horseshoe and grenades.
[01:07:36] You mentioned the battle the ball, Gerlier, on December 16th, at two in the morning, I was
[01:07:40] on duty when a corporal drove up to the command post came in and reported.
[01:07:44] He was so excited that he saluted me.
[01:07:47] A staff sergeant.
[01:07:48] He declared I'm at guard post number six.
[01:07:51] And of course, we got out the operations map so I could see right where he was just
[01:07:54] south of Montshau.
[01:07:57] Montshau.
[01:07:58] He told me that the German pair of troops were coming down.
[01:08:01] I asked when you saw them coming down.
[01:08:03] What did you do?
[01:08:04] I got in the Jeep and came right here.
[01:08:07] So that was the beginning of the battle of the battle.
[01:08:11] The Germans had POWs, American POWs took their uniforms and then went out into this area
[01:08:23] and started changing the road signs and doing, they were spying and stuff and you talked
[01:08:28] about the fact that if you caught those people and those people were caught, they were shot.
[01:08:35] No trial was necessary for those men.
[01:08:38] This was in the material on the spot.
[01:08:40] And then the German tanks started to roll through.
[01:08:50] Now, Melmidi, the land lined up all these guys that were artillery observers.
[01:09:00] They caught, I take 180 of our guys who were caught there and lined up in the ditch with
[01:09:10] their hands over their head.
[01:09:12] And it was snowing out the time when the German tanks rolled by and Colonel Fytherer
[01:09:23] of the who led the Germans at that time.
[01:09:27] And the soldier does tanks to fire their machine guns at these guys in the ditch.
[01:09:34] That's called Melmidi Massacre.
[01:09:39] Now, did you hear how long did it take for you to hear about that?
[01:09:43] Oh, I got it.
[01:09:45] But I don't know where.
[01:09:47] I'm about an hour.
[01:09:48] We're got back fast.
[01:09:51] We were caught off from the first army.
[01:09:56] When they went through there.
[01:10:04] We ended up being part of General Montgomery's 21st Army group.
[01:10:14] And they talked about luck.
[01:10:20] Patten was, they ordered to get help from Patten from the third army.
[01:10:25] That was a long way, but by the time Patten got there, Montgomery, we were part of Montgomery's
[01:10:36] 21st Army group.
[01:10:38] Think of that.
[01:10:40] We were the fifth corps.
[01:10:41] We're the only one that was part of Patten's 21st Army.
[01:10:49] And we had the first 29th, I think, or 28th division either one or those others at
[01:11:00] the time.
[01:11:01] There is a slip there.
[01:11:03] My mind is pretty full of stuff.
[01:11:10] But I can't tell you for sure, which one.
[01:11:14] But anyway, we put the squeeze out of the Germans from two sides.
[01:11:21] They had nowhere to go.
[01:11:23] It dropped their weapons and marched out.
[01:11:27] And they ran out of fuel to the other side.
[01:11:29] They left all of the vehicles right there.
[01:11:33] They walked out.
[01:11:36] I was reading some history about this.
[01:11:39] And I guess six different occasions.
[01:11:42] This was Hitler's plan was to push through there.
[01:11:50] And six times his generals objected to the plan and said, this isn't a good idea.
[01:11:55] We shouldn't do this.
[01:11:56] And six times he said, no, we're doing it anyways.
[01:11:59] Not listening.
[01:12:00] He was not listening to his subordinate.
[01:12:02] He had to push back.
[01:12:03] Did he ever?
[01:12:04] No.
[01:12:05] He just fired him.
[01:12:10] So as they pushed back, that battle, the battle of the bolds lasted almost a month and a
[01:12:16] half, something like that.
[01:12:17] I got out of there December 31st.
[01:12:22] Okay.
[01:12:23] That's where we're like, I got 45 days leave.
[01:12:27] I'll tell you in a story of that.
[01:12:36] December 31st.
[01:12:39] Colonel Hill called me and said, I got a furlough for you.
[01:12:46] You're going to go home for 45 days.
[01:12:53] And so my God, I couldn't believe it.
[01:12:59] I had rifles and stuff under Colonel Hill's bed.
[01:13:05] Yeah, I had this truck that his bed never seemed to have seen that.
[01:13:12] And it was a good place to store stuff.
[01:13:15] So he didn't mind sleeping over.
[01:13:19] But I left that stuff over there.
[01:13:22] When I was going just on formalcy, I thought I'd be back to pick that up.
[01:13:33] So it took me 51 days to get home.
[01:13:45] And part of that was transporting wounded.
[01:13:47] Oh, we had it off on a ship.
[01:13:49] From the harbor, from the harbor to parts of us.
[01:13:57] I think two or three ship loads abounded.
[01:14:02] So as you tried to leave, like we mentioned, like I mentioned earlier, there was 47,000 wounded
[01:14:10] during the battle of the bulge.
[01:14:11] So instead of the ships being able to take people home on furlough, you ended up on these
[01:14:17] ships getting people transported where back to England.
[01:14:21] Two, yeah, to parts of us.
[01:14:25] Parts of us, things were which stopping.
[01:14:29] I'm loaded with ships again.
[01:14:32] Then go back and get another load, see.
[01:14:36] And here, I'm supposed to be headed across the Atlantic.
[01:14:42] And think of this when I do get home.
[01:14:51] When I do get home and spend my 45 days at home, I go up to Fort Snelling and a captain
[01:15:00] called me and he's sergeant.
[01:15:05] Ten minutes, ten minutes ago, I got a call from the Pentagon and they told me that they
[01:15:18] let me, I could stay home or go back to Germany.
[01:15:25] My god, after three years over there, I bet.
[01:15:29] There's no way I'm going back to Germany.
[01:15:32] So all the relics that I had under Colonel Hill's bed, they were given up.
[01:15:43] Don't know what happened.
[01:15:44] And I don't miss some one of them.
[01:15:50] So that's as you get home, I can't even imagine going from that many months of direct combat
[01:16:01] and just getting on a ship, getting back to America.
[01:16:05] What was it like when you got home, especially before you found out that you were going
[01:16:09] to get to stay home?
[01:16:10] Oh, hey, my mother was dying from a heart to sea, he's called Leaky Chimdahart.
[01:16:18] It was a bell in there.
[01:16:23] I never thought I'd see her anymore, but she was still living.
[01:16:30] And she lived for five years after that.
[01:16:35] She saw her grandchildren, two of her grandchildren at that time.
[01:16:44] I say there is a god, but two weeks after my mother passed away, Dr. Hoffnado in Washington,
[01:16:57] D.C., in Venice that's valve.
[01:17:01] That would have cured her.
[01:17:06] But you can't turn that time.
[01:17:15] It's like crying over spilled milk.
[01:17:17] You can't pick it up.
[01:17:19] It's done.
[01:17:25] So was there anything else about the war when you were there like on a day to day basis?
[01:17:32] How did you handle that?
[01:17:37] You said when you were going to day, you weren't really afraid.
[01:17:41] Then once you were getting that behind this bird.
[01:17:43] Oh, okay, I was about to tell you what I'm doing here.
[01:17:48] If you're in that position, you want to be able to fight back.
[01:17:54] Well, there's no way you can fight back there.
[01:17:58] They're protected from fire and you have to know exactly where they are, little hold
[01:18:04] they're shooting out of.
[01:18:06] It's pretty hard to determine when you're running for your life and dodging.
[01:18:18] It's a circumstance you don't ever want to be in.
[01:18:24] But you're not the only one.
[01:18:28] Major, you've got all the guys around you that are doing the same thing and some of them
[01:18:33] being shot.
[01:18:35] That'll spur you on a little bit too.
[01:18:39] When somebody gets shot, puts a little bit of a unpassing you.
[01:18:49] So when you get back and now you find out that they're going to discharge you.
[01:18:58] You're done with the army.
[01:19:00] You say that here you say, I was done.
[01:19:04] That was April 13, 1945 and the war ended in May.
[01:19:08] I was just 22 years old with seven years of soldering under my belt.
[01:19:13] It's crazy when you think about that.
[01:19:16] So that's it, the war's over for you.
[01:19:21] And now it's, you start off by going back to farm life, right?
[01:19:25] Yeah, I've started helping my dad by rebuilding the hog shed, cementing and everything.
[01:19:33] And then I started thinking, I'm going to have to have some kind of occupation.
[01:19:41] They don't like the, they don't care about hiring somebody for just shooting people.
[01:19:48] You know.
[01:19:52] And so I enrolled in Dunno the Institute.
[01:19:59] I took training in electricity.
[01:20:04] I didn't.
[01:20:11] Radio TV.
[01:20:11] Anything to have to do with electricity.
[01:20:16] I did.
[01:20:19] And in fact, after I got out of there, I had my own service station for a while.
[01:20:28] Man, have an asturvation, making a sent again.
[01:20:42] And when they rebuild a highway alongside of you and no one can get in there, except from
[01:20:49] the back streets.
[01:20:52] And I said there were going to dump 30,000 yellows on me a month.
[01:20:59] I told them to wear a shove that in service station.
[01:21:04] And I went and got a job in Austin, Minnesota as a Lainman climbing poles that's
[01:21:14] string and wire.
[01:21:24] I did that for four years.
[01:21:27] I'm a journeyman lineman.
[01:21:29] I got a journeyman license.
[01:21:33] So Captain Erickson finally got his wish if you being up in the up.
[01:21:41] You said you were going out in September 1945 soon thereafter we're going out every night.
[01:21:48] And October I got an engagement ring and asked her to marry me.
[01:21:51] It seemed a wrap to me, but I was infatuated.
[01:21:54] October went by.
[01:21:55] Then November came along.
[01:21:56] And I told Lola that it was killing me.
[01:21:59] And that we had to do something about it.
[01:22:00] We arranged to have a wedding at the Lutheran Church in Austin, where my sister peg and
[01:22:05] my brother-in-law lived.
[01:22:07] November 23rd, simple wedding.
[01:22:11] She moved in and she and I slept in a closet on a bed no wider than a couch.
[01:22:19] Worked out great for a while.
[01:22:23] And plus we're lucky you don't take up much room.
[01:22:29] You say this when I got home from the service, I had the shakes.
[01:22:34] But nobody visited doctors for post traumatic stress disorder back then.
[01:22:38] I woke up one night and I was choking Lola so we got separate beds.
[01:22:42] She realized what I had gone through.
[01:22:44] She was there for me 100%.
[01:22:46] I had to learn how to drink coffee with my left hand because my right hand shook so much.
[01:22:53] I started taking, was that propron on all?
[01:22:57] Propron on all for that.
[01:22:59] And still take it to this day.
[01:23:05] So there's definitely even though you came home from the war.
[01:23:08] The war was kind of still going on in some ways.
[01:23:13] No, no, no, no, no.
[01:23:14] World War II veterans had medical help like that.
[01:23:20] In fact, when I wouldn't pick it, medical help.
[01:23:28] I had 11 cents in me.
[01:23:34] 11 in your heart.
[01:23:36] Well, or I'm around your heart.
[01:23:41] 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 overnight.
[01:23:56] There is a God.
[01:24:00] I kept me in the hospital and hooked me up to tell you about things like wires all over me.
[01:24:14] The next morning, I woke up in the neighboring hospital instead of wall and a creek.
[01:24:22] Kaiser, I woke up in Mount Diablo.
[01:24:27] And conquered 25 miles away at two o'clock in the morning.
[01:24:37] That alarm went off.
[01:24:39] I had cardiac arrest.
[01:24:42] That means I was dead for a while.
[01:24:46] But you were hooked up to a machine.
[01:24:48] The machine?
[01:24:49] And they got to work on you immediately.
[01:24:52] And got me.
[01:24:57] Crazy.
[01:24:58] You tell the story in here.
[01:24:59] I mentioned that the picture earlier, that the major took of you while you were sitting in the Jeep.
[01:25:05] And that picture got published in the newspaper.
[01:25:09] And then you say this one day, I came home from work, finding Lola, changing her wallet.
[01:25:15] She had all the remains of her old wallet dispersed across the table.
[01:25:18] I walked by thinking nothing of it until something caught my eye.
[01:25:21] I noticed a picture of a young soldier sitting inside an army Jeep.
[01:25:25] But that wasn't just any soldier.
[01:25:27] That was me.
[01:25:29] She had the picture of me and her wallet from years ago when I was in major Ridgeways Jeep.
[01:25:34] The one that was in the local paper.
[01:25:37] I asked her, where did you get that picture?
[01:25:39] And she told me that she cut it out of the paper and put it in her wallet.
[01:25:42] I said, you didn't even know me.
[01:25:44] She said, no, but I met your brother Bob and he was in the hospital.
[01:25:47] I said, you're brother Bob and he was talking about you.
[01:25:50] At the time she was a sophomore going to high school.
[01:25:53] Her family had just moved two farms north of us near Hope.
[01:25:56] I never met her or her family and didn't even know she existed.
[01:25:59] While she was in high school, one of her girlfriends questioned her for keeping the photo and asked,
[01:26:03] who's the guy in this picture?
[01:26:05] She announced, that is the guy I am going to marry.
[01:26:10] How can you make up something like that?
[01:26:13] My life is unbelievable.
[01:26:18] I'm telling them, and it keeps on going unbelievable.
[01:26:23] So you have your first son, Kurt, in 1948.
[01:26:29] You end up with that line-min job.
[01:26:32] You have your second child, Linda.
[01:26:36] And then you go, you become a TV, radio repairman after you do the service stage.
[01:26:42] You end up moving to California.
[01:26:45] When you get to California, you're working for seers as a TV repairman for $2.35
[01:26:51] an hour.
[01:26:52] Your brother-in-law has a print shop up in Northern California.
[01:26:57] He offers you a hefty raise up to $3.42 an hour.
[01:27:02] And you go up there and do that.
[01:27:05] You end up also doing TV repair on the side.
[01:27:09] Working with replacing people's tubes and one knot.
[01:27:12] So now it's years go by.
[01:27:16] And you say this while working for my brother-in-law,
[01:27:19] I'd come home about 3-30 or 4 every day.
[01:27:22] And then worked fixing televisions.
[01:27:24] One particular day I'll never forget.
[01:27:25] I came home from the print shop and Lola met me at the door.
[01:27:28] I said, hi, Han.
[01:27:30] Don't harm me.
[01:27:32] You son of a gun.
[01:27:34] You're a fucking bitch.
[01:27:39] Wow, that shook me up.
[01:27:41] What's the problem, honey?
[01:27:42] The problem is I'm pregnant.
[01:27:43] You son of a bitch.
[01:27:44] Yeah.
[01:27:45] It's pregnant.
[01:27:46] You'd better get the doctor to make sure.
[01:27:48] Well, the reason she was, because this is what, ten years after your last kid?
[01:27:51] Yeah.
[01:27:52] Ten years.
[01:27:54] It's not like ten years.
[01:27:57] So that's, you end up having another baby.
[01:28:01] Yeah.
[01:28:02] You go to it.
[01:28:04] And there is a god.
[01:28:07] You work at Jonas printing.
[01:28:09] You work at Harrington, McGinnis printing for a while.
[01:28:14] You end up getting a house.
[01:28:18] Here's a conversation.
[01:28:20] In 1990 we were still living in Pleasant Hill, California.
[01:28:23] As usual, it went to, I still went to the free market every Sunday in January.
[01:28:28] And now I'm going to talk to you.
[01:28:33] The first word out of her mouth, I knew I didn't have a chance.
[01:28:36] I knew I was screwed.
[01:28:38] She looked at me and said, father, I found my dream house.
[01:28:41] Yeah, father.
[01:28:43] Melted me.
[01:28:45] So what do you mean by dream house?
[01:28:48] A house we can live in with my two sons and their families.
[01:28:51] I want you to come look at it.
[01:28:53] All I could think was, man, this is going to cost me a lot.
[01:28:56] So you say the place was going to take a lot of work.
[01:29:01] 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.
[01:29:08] But you end up buying the house.
[01:29:10] Lowly moved into the house in Martinez during the construction renovations.
[01:29:15] Followed by Carlin and Kim then Kurt.
[01:29:17] Linda wasn't interested in moving in because she already had a home with her husband and family.
[01:29:22] I lived in Pleasant Hill while our house was up for sale.
[01:29:25] The housing market was slow at the time because the interest rate was at 12%.
[01:29:31] While I stayed at Pleasant Hill, the house in Martinez really came together.
[01:29:35] All of Lowly's ideas coming to life.
[01:29:37] I was starting to see what she saw in that house.
[01:29:40] So you end up with a compound for the family.
[01:29:43] Yes.
[01:29:44] And it kept me alive.
[01:29:49] I have another incident where I couldn't get out of bed in the house.
[01:29:54] I had a bed in the morning.
[01:29:56] I went off a radio just a radio came on.
[01:30:02] Loud.
[01:30:03] And I'm laying there thinking like right here right now.
[01:30:10] As my mind was as sharp as it is right now.
[01:30:15] But I could move a muscle.
[01:30:20] I had a telephone rental on the side of me.
[01:30:26] To call my kids.
[01:30:30] I couldn't move unless I had a little muscle.
[01:30:34] Do you know?
[01:30:36] Yes.
[01:30:38] Your bladder starts talking to you.
[01:30:41] Get me to the bathroom.
[01:30:44] Or you're going to be sorry.
[01:30:49] And the next thing I knew, my older son came down from upstairs.
[01:30:55] And he says, the radio was going.
[01:31:01] He says, Dad, I've got a problem.
[01:31:05] Kurt, I can't move.
[01:31:11] I've got to get to the bathroom.
[01:31:14] He says, I'll go get the car on.
[01:31:18] So when they started moving me, I passed out.
[01:31:25] The next thing I knew I was woke up in Kaiser Warrner Creek.
[01:31:34] I had a stroke.
[01:31:41] And they said, if I'd have been any later, it would have affected me.
[01:31:47] Right now I have a little.
[01:31:54] I kind of, well, my left side.
[01:32:02] My left hand.
[01:32:08] It's wrinkled in there.
[01:32:13] I left foot.
[01:32:18] I kind of dragged my left foot.
[01:32:23] But the Ruzzy God, I'll tell you about it.
[01:32:27] Does it hurt me?
[01:32:30] My mind complete.
[01:32:34] So while you were living in pleasant hill, you got to call.
[01:32:40] One day, Lola called me and said, Father, I want you to come down there and stay with you.
[01:32:42] I'll get along the way, bed.
[01:32:46] He even talked about that in me.
[01:32:50] She said I'm losing too much weight because I miss your kid cooking.
[01:32:56] I asked how much weight she lost.
[01:32:57] I lost 40 pounds last month.
[01:33:00] 40 pounds.
[01:33:05] You say they found out she had stomach cancer.
[01:33:10] I'm sorry, Dad.
[01:33:11] Linda said they're going to operate.
[01:33:12] They think they can get it all.
[01:33:14] They might have to take somewhere stomach out, but she can live a normal life.
[01:33:17] She would have to eat less, but more often.
[01:33:19] I just wanted anything and everything done for her to keep going.
[01:33:26] The doctors opened her up discovering that it had spread to her intestines.
[01:33:29] They gave her six weeks to live, but she lived a little longer than expected.
[01:33:34] Curtin Carlin fixed up the room in the house that looked towards Mount Diablo, so she could look out the window
[01:33:39] and enjoy the view.
[01:33:40] One of the last things she saw was that view.
[01:33:43] It's a beautiful sight.
[01:33:54] A day doesn't go by when I don't think if you're knowing that she's guiding me.
[01:34:03] She wrote a poem about me.
[01:34:06] She never was my tom poetry, but low love to write.
[01:34:10] She titled the poem One of a Lucky.
[01:34:16] My husband was one of many a second world war volunteer, who left home to go serve his country,
[01:34:24] this land that we all love so dear.
[01:34:28] He never complained.
[01:34:30] He was lonesome, surrounded by enemy guns.
[01:34:34] The letters he wrote, home were cheerful, like the battle was only fun.
[01:34:39] In his foxhole there, death sat beside him, with shells whistling over his head.
[01:34:44] He tried to remember his childhood, tucked safely away in his bed.
[01:34:49] His buddies they fell by the dozen on the beach their lives, abbing away.
[01:34:55] In my heart, I think God had watched over him when he made it to cover that day.
[01:35:02] Time and again he was lucky.
[01:35:06] He still ran when his best buddies fell,
[01:35:10] adodging and jumping and dying in this man-made inferno to hell.
[01:35:17] But the day came when his nerves had shattered, and the general so plainly could see.
[01:35:24] This boy should no longer see battle, so they sent him home safely to me.
[01:35:31] To me.
[01:35:34] Beautiful poem.
[01:35:51] Six me up. Six me up.
[01:35:56] Well, you were very lucky, not just to avoid machine guns and bombs and everything else.
[01:36:07] You were also very lucky that you met your beautiful wife, and you were able to spend so much time with her.
[01:36:14] I tell you, somebody up there like, shmai.
[01:36:19] I can't fear it out. Somebody must like me or like what I do things.
[01:36:31] Even after Lola died, you kept working.
[01:36:35] Then finally in 1995, when you were 73, your boy said,
[01:36:39] Dad, we don't want your work anymore.
[01:36:42] You retired after working for 19 years at Harrington McGinnis.
[01:36:48] But then you still kept schedule.
[01:36:51] So how old were you in your retired of 73?
[01:36:54] But you'd run errands and cook for the family,
[01:37:00] taking the kids all over the place to different schools and stuff.
[01:37:05] Had to stay focused, had a new mission.
[01:37:10] I had a new responsibility in life.
[01:37:13] I had a granddaughter.
[01:37:17] Who was three when I was 73?
[01:37:22] And I became the sole razor of her.
[01:37:27] She's a dancer on a cruise ship.
[01:37:30] No, a dancer singer.
[01:37:32] And she is the one responsible for putting me on TikTok.
[01:37:39] I would not be here right now.
[01:37:42] She's mostly responsible for this book.
[01:37:49] It's unbelievable.
[01:37:58] It is unbelievable.
[01:37:59] Luckily you're sitting here to see that it is believable.
[01:38:03] Yes.
[01:38:04] It's crazy.
[01:38:06] Crazy.
[01:38:09] You know, you were a little earlier in the book.
[01:38:13] You were talking about having the shakes in your hand.
[01:38:16] Then you say, I came out of World War II with the shakes in my right arm.
[01:38:20] I couldn't pick up a cup of coffee without shaking.
[01:38:23] Without my hands shaking.
[01:38:24] So I learned a drink with my left hand.
[01:38:26] I took medication for it, but it didn't alleviate it completely.
[01:38:30] And then one time you fell down.
[01:38:33] And when you fell down, you went to the hospital.
[01:38:36] You got 30 stitches in your head.
[01:38:41] And 29 stitches in your right hand.
[01:38:46] You went to the bunch of MRIs and whatnot.
[01:38:53] Before you went in the MRI machine, I got to read this part.
[01:38:56] You said, I got down to the MRI room and the guy who was operating the MRI machine said,
[01:39:00] I asked you a few questions before I put you in the machine.
[01:39:02] I replied, go right ahead.
[01:39:04] Yes, me as a series of questions. Like what year is it?
[01:39:07] Etc. etc. Then he asked, are you pregnant?
[01:39:10] I answered, I've been screwed so many times.
[01:39:13] I ought to be.
[01:39:16] Well, the MRI came back with that in any problems,
[01:39:18] but you the shake went away after after 70 years.
[01:39:23] No, no, no, no.
[01:39:25] We're sitting here. I want you to look at this.
[01:39:29] I could be an eye doctor.
[01:39:32] Absolutely.
[01:39:35] I couldn't hold it.
[01:39:39] I couldn't hold it.
[01:39:39] I cut the coffee in that hand.
[01:39:41] Before I fell on my left side and left side right hand.
[01:39:47] It correlates.
[01:39:49] It's a miracle.
[01:39:50] I am a miracle.
[01:39:53] It's crazy.
[01:39:55] And so, let you end up getting cataracts surgery.
[01:39:58] You've been color blind your whole life.
[01:40:00] What happens after cataracts surgery?
[01:40:02] I get my color vision back.
[01:40:05] On Easter Sunday.
[01:40:08] Easter Sunday.
[01:40:11] Crazy.
[01:40:13] So you can see color now.
[01:40:15] She color now.
[01:40:16] You are color blind your whole life.
[01:40:18] You see all these colors?
[01:40:23] I can't tell you what color that is.
[01:40:27] But it's kind of an orangey red.
[01:40:30] Yes, it is.
[01:40:33] And that's a blue.
[01:40:36] Yes, it is.
[01:40:38] But I see all these colors.
[01:40:43] I don't know the names of them because I was brought up without colors.
[01:40:51] I'm believable.
[01:40:53] It's crazy.
[01:40:55] And you mentioned earlier going over being having the opportunity to go to the 75th anniversary
[01:41:03] of D Day.
[01:41:04] Part of that was because of a donations on a go fund me to get you sent over there.
[01:41:11] That's a very interesting thing.
[01:41:16] Because all my service records were burned up in Kentucky in 1973.
[01:41:24] The elves and the ems were burned up.
[01:41:29] So I don't know if I put this in about one middle of the month.
[01:41:40] I did get the bronze star.
[01:41:45] Or Earl Heeps was a newcomer to the bagel shop group.
[01:41:52] And he was a sergeant in Korea.
[01:41:59] And he says, you ever give any medals, Jake?
[01:42:05] Yeah, I got the bronze star.
[01:42:08] He's bringing it in.
[01:42:13] I've never seen the bronze star.
[01:42:17] We had just moved from pleasant hill into our home in Martinez.
[01:42:27] So I looked for that bronze star.
[01:42:32] I could not find it.
[01:42:35] I looked every place.
[01:42:38] Where would I go?
[01:42:40] What happened to that thing?
[01:42:43] Then my daughter said, Linda said, that don't worry about the office.
[01:42:49] I'll just write to the army and have it replaced.
[01:42:54] I said, you can do that.
[01:42:56] Oh, yeah.
[01:42:57] They'll replace it for you.
[01:42:59] So I went up and told Earl Heeps that I couldn't find it.
[01:43:07] They were going to replace it.
[01:43:12] A month later, Linda came to me and says, dad, they don't know anything about your bronze star.
[01:43:28] They all your records were burned in Kentucky.
[01:43:33] And they don't even know if you served in the service.
[01:43:38] They're going to be dead.
[01:43:42] Man, that's a shaker upper.
[01:43:47] So I tried to find out, and man, I'm a GI.
[01:43:55] Three years overseas.
[01:43:58] I don't even have VA help for doctor or anything.
[01:44:07] And it's probably a damn good thing because I'm still alive.
[01:44:14] I don't take data to give this love and sense to me in the VA.
[01:44:23] But they ended up raising money for you and you found your bronze star.
[01:44:27] It's in the book.
[01:44:28] You found your bronze star.
[01:44:30] I can tell you about this.
[01:44:35] And I went back and told Earl Heeps that my bronze star was lost.
[01:44:43] And they told me, we don't even know if you served in the service.
[01:44:49] And Earl Heeps says, well, we don't have to believe in them.
[01:44:53] I'm telling you, you've been telling us, man, that's a stabber.
[01:45:03] But you did find the bronze star.
[01:45:05] Oh, we found a bronze.
[01:45:07] We didn't all damn okay and there's something.
[01:45:11] And I'm an ammunition box.
[01:45:15] And here's irony to think.
[01:45:18] It was some 40 caliber ammunition.
[01:45:21] And I asked who wanted that ammunition.
[01:45:23] I didn't want that around.
[01:45:25] I had some handguns that fit.
[01:45:28] And I've got too many grandchildren.
[01:45:33] So Earl Heeps says, I'll take it.
[01:45:37] I've got some here.
[01:45:39] Earl Heeps.
[01:45:41] The one who told me, we don't have to believe a damn thing you told us.
[01:45:46] I opened that ammunition box and there that bronze star was laying in the box right on top.
[01:45:54] I don't remember putting it on in there.
[01:45:58] And no one else did, too.
[01:46:01] But when I could produce the bronze star, Earl had to eat it.
[01:46:09] He did.
[01:46:10] He had to eat his words.
[01:46:12] Did I say, look.
[01:46:14] Yeah.
[01:46:15] He did.
[01:46:18] So you raised the money.
[01:46:20] You end up going to Normandy.
[01:46:22] And you talked about this, but I just want to read this section because it's so moving.
[01:46:26] You say we drove straight from Paris to Normandy to the American cemetery.
[01:46:30] The first grave I saw was a private from the first infantry division.
[01:46:33] That choked me up because I went on in on D day with members of the first infantry division.
[01:46:39] And now I was looking down at his grave 75 years later.
[01:46:43] It's kind of a weird feeling.
[01:46:45] I made it.
[01:46:47] And he didn't look at the family I have while he has nothing.
[01:46:51] War is so unfair.
[01:46:54] I took off my hat, thanking him for paving the way for me.
[01:46:58] I teared up and walked away.
[01:47:01] I never realized the cemetery had over 9,000 Americans.
[01:47:06] I was never one for visiting cemeteries.
[01:47:09] There are souls still hanging around, but this visit was different.
[01:47:14] I owed it to those who had been killed to pay my respects.
[01:47:23] And as you mentioned earlier, you ended up doing a bunch of interviews for French TV and CBS.
[01:47:30] I got to add to one that you'll never hear anybody else say.
[01:47:42] From Russia, from Moscow, a young girl came up to me after the five.
[01:47:53] I was one who came up and said, I'm from Moscow, Russia.
[01:48:00] And I'd like to interview you.
[01:48:03] Perfect English.
[01:48:08] I've never heard that anyone being interviewed from anybody from Russia.
[01:48:16] It's crazy.
[01:48:25] You also went back to Omaha Beach itself.
[01:48:29] 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 and abuse groups.
[01:48:36] I found it.
[01:48:39] I was...
[01:48:43] I tell you, it's hard for me to talk about it.
[01:48:48] You can't imagine what were the memories that come back to you.
[01:48:57] And here I'm standing there with my son, my two sons.
[01:49:07] Because you ended up seeing a bomb that was basically exactly what that had been.
[01:49:12] It's like it was recreated for me.
[01:49:18] How is that possible?
[01:49:25] They had a big ceremony.
[01:49:32] You took the president's hand at the ceremony.
[01:49:36] Yeah, president Cropes hand.
[01:49:39] It did a bunch more interviews.
[01:49:44] And you say this, the D-Day anniversary trip was the trip of a lifetime that I will never forget.
[01:49:50] What a moving memory surpassing D-Day in my mind.
[01:49:55] There was no killing.
[01:49:57] And we were celebrating.
[01:49:58] It was the epitome of my life.
[01:50:00] I'm so grateful for all the people who came together in order for me to make it back there.
[01:50:04] I never in my life thought I would return to that beach, but I'm glad that I did.
[01:50:08] I did not return for myself.
[01:50:11] But instead for my fellow soldiers who did not make it.
[01:50:18] And all those interviews that you did, the word spread, you ended up hearing from a corporal Madison rich.
[01:50:24] You ended up hearing kids.
[01:50:28] About the gun incident breaking into...
[01:50:33] Man, he told his children about that.
[01:50:39] I never had much contact.
[01:50:44] We were working when we...
[01:50:47] We got on our service.
[01:50:48] We didn't have time for messing around.
[01:50:54] Talking about what we did in the service.
[01:50:58] But after he passed away, his wife contacted me.
[01:51:08] And I kept in contact with her for the years.
[01:51:13] And then she passed away.
[01:51:18] And man, all of a sudden I'm over in Europe.
[01:51:21] I'm in Europe celebrating the 75th anniversary of D.D.
[01:51:30] And in New York.
[01:51:35] I'm a man there.
[01:51:46] He calls his brother in New Jersey.
[01:51:49] He says, Frank, are you watching that thing about D.D.
[01:51:54] The 75th anniversary?
[01:51:56] Yeah, he says, I am.
[01:51:59] I wonder if that Jake Larson there talking about.
[01:52:03] It's the same one dad used to talk about when the rifle broke into.
[01:52:08] And he was laid this rifle under.
[01:52:13] So they got a whole of my youngest son, Carlon.
[01:52:17] He's kind of takes care of all my appointments and things.
[01:52:24] And they called him.
[01:52:28] And he's...
[01:52:29] So, some, hey, I wonder if that Jake Larson is the same guy that my dad was talking to him.
[01:52:35] Carlon said, well, what's your dad's name?
[01:52:39] He says, Madison Rich.
[01:52:41] Carlon said, that's the same one.
[01:52:44] I personally got in contact.
[01:52:49] Those two girls and two boys of Madison Rich.
[01:52:54] Contacted at me. We talked on the phone, face to face.
[01:53:02] And the oldest boy came down and saw me personally.
[01:53:07] What a wonderful thing.
[01:53:11] What a wonderful thing.
[01:53:13] Madison Rich did not make 70 years old.
[01:53:20] My God, I worked a little 73.
[01:53:24] And here I sit going on 99.
[01:53:30] There's something wrong in the equation.
[01:53:35] How one person could... could do these things?
[01:53:41] I need help.
[01:53:48] Why am I still here?
[01:53:51] How come I don't have extra pains?
[01:53:54] Like anybody else?
[01:53:59] Life is crazy.
[01:54:02] They're real thing.
[01:54:04] Yeah, and there is somebody that...
[01:54:06] Somebody, I guess if you look at the world, there's got to be somebody that actually is the luckiest man in the world.
[01:54:11] That's the name of the book.
[01:54:13] I think we're finding out it's nonfiction.
[01:54:16] It certainly isn't non-fiction.
[01:54:21] And I'm not a writer.
[01:54:25] I'm just telling you stories of my life.
[01:54:30] The way they come up.
[01:54:32] I don't have big words.
[01:54:35] You don't see anything big in there.
[01:54:38] But it's the way I talk.
[01:54:44] That's generally how to write.
[01:54:47] Not right to impress anybody with my verb age.
[01:54:54] The stories themselves are impressive enough.
[01:54:57] The verbiage is secondary.
[01:55:01] The stories are amazing, you can hear.
[01:55:05] Another thing that you did was take an honor flight.
[01:55:12] The honor flight is a nonprofit organization.
[01:55:15] Great people.
[01:55:16] And they provide their mission as to provide veterans with honor and closure.
[01:55:23] And so they fly veterans to Washington, D.C.
[01:55:28] To see the war memorials.
[01:55:30] And your name came up on there.
[01:55:33] And so you ended up going to Washington, D.C.
[01:55:36] Thanks to the private donations to the honor flight organization,
[01:55:40] which a great organization, like I said.
[01:55:43] And you said this when you got there.
[01:55:46] I was ticked off because they took so long to complete the World War II memorial,
[01:55:50] only opening in 2004.
[01:55:53] By that time, most of the men from the war were gone.
[01:55:55] I would never have the chance to see it.
[01:55:57] Karlin convinced me that I should go in their memory.
[01:56:00] So that's why I went.
[01:56:02] The irony is that the 135th Infantry,
[01:56:05] which is part of the 34th Division, has a shield that says
[01:56:09] to the last man.
[01:56:11] I was 15 years old the first time I saw that.
[01:56:15] Well, they are all gone except me.
[01:56:20] Who would ever imagine that I would actually be the last man?
[01:56:26] I got that shield right here on my jacket.
[01:56:32] And then came the Battle of the Bulge 75th anniversary.
[01:56:41] And there's a guy named Mitch Mendler,
[01:56:45] fire fighter, paramedic here, right here in San Diego.
[01:56:48] It's a matter of fact.
[01:56:49] And he's the president of a nonprofit organization called World Memorials.
[01:56:56] And doing great work with that.
[01:56:59] And they volunteered to sponsor you to get you out to the 75th anniversary
[01:57:06] of the Battle of the Bulge.
[01:57:11] And you say here, when we went to the airport,
[01:57:14] Food Downal Los Angeles, I was met at the gate by my sponsor group.
[01:57:17] Who introduced me to two of the men entrusted to travel with me.
[01:57:22] Colonel Mike Droll of the Arizona Rangers and Rick Cochran,
[01:57:27] Executive Director, Hispanic Medal of Honor.
[01:57:31] Joshua Kaufman, a Holocaust survivor who survived five concentration camps
[01:57:37] was amongst the group.
[01:57:39] When US troops liberated him at the age of 16,
[01:57:43] he weighed a mere 55 pounds.
[01:57:46] His daughter interpreted it for him in Yiddish
[01:57:51] informing him that I was going back for D-Day.
[01:57:54] When she communicated that I was the only one left in my company,
[01:58:01] he, Joshua Kaufman, got down on his hands and knees
[01:58:06] and kissed my feet.
[01:58:09] That choked me up.
[01:58:11] He got up and grabbed my hand and said,
[01:58:14] Love you and squeezed my hand.
[01:58:18] We were both crying.
[01:58:23] That's incredible.
[01:58:28] They mentioned closure.
[01:58:31] Actually, meeting an individual that had been in the concentration camps
[01:58:36] and was liberated by American such as yourself.
[01:58:40] That's amazing.
[01:58:43] That only seven years difference in our life.
[01:58:46] I was 22.
[01:58:48] What did that happen?
[01:58:54] You know, I've read a bunch of this book so far tonight.
[01:58:58] And I know we've been talking for a while,
[01:59:01] but I wanted to close the book out with this last section
[01:59:05] that I'll read and again, there's so much more in this book.
[01:59:08] I've only covered a couple of the highlights,
[01:59:11] but it was hard to even select which highlights to cover
[01:59:14] because it's all just incredible stories.
[01:59:17] But I wanted to close with this quote here.
[01:59:20] It says,
[01:59:21] It's mind-boggling to have someone kiss your feet
[01:59:23] and thanks for what those soldiers did.
[01:59:26] I am not the one to be kissed.
[01:59:28] I'm representing all the guys who freed all the concentration camp victims.
[01:59:33] It was their actions.
[01:59:36] I'm not a hero.
[01:59:38] I'm here too.
[01:59:40] I'm here to tell you what I went through.
[01:59:43] All these people are gone and I'm left alone.
[01:59:46] I can't see where I deserve the credit for that.
[01:59:49] I'm the last one alive to represent these guys
[01:59:53] that gave their lives over there.
[01:59:56] So I could relate this story to everyone.
[02:00:02] And again, the story is incredible.
[02:00:11] You know, you lived it.
[02:00:14] And you're sitting across the table for me.
[02:00:16] And you realize how incredible and almost unbelievable it is.
[02:00:20] And you are doing an outstanding job.
[02:00:23] Carrying on and passing on the story of your brothers,
[02:00:28] your comrades and arms.
[02:00:30] They're the heroes.
[02:00:32] They're the heroes.
[02:00:34] And so you're carrying on that story.
[02:00:37] And that's not the end of the story, by the way.
[02:00:39] Because like you said earlier, you're very popular on social media.
[02:00:42] You're a TikTok star.
[02:00:44] You're on Instagram.
[02:00:46] You're on YouTube.
[02:00:48] It's all under the same title, which is Storytime with Papa Jake.
[02:00:53] You have hundreds of thousands of followers.
[02:00:56] And you have millions of views on some of your stories.
[02:01:01] Of course this book, but it's just a, it's incredible.
[02:01:05] And the story's not over yet.
[02:01:08] Well, I hope it is. I hope it isn't for a while.
[02:01:12] But how did it start with the TikTok thing?
[02:01:16] I did it.
[02:01:18] My granddaughter told you I raised,
[02:01:21] said, say, three years old,
[02:01:24] dances on a cruise ship.
[02:01:26] Crayon of Iris came.
[02:01:29] Crayon cruise ships,
[02:01:31] quit.
[02:01:32] She came home.
[02:01:34] She's a very special person to her grandpa.
[02:01:44] And she came over one morning and sat there.
[02:01:49] She says, Papa, I put you on TikTok with me.
[02:01:53] What now, hell is TikTok?
[02:01:56] I, TikTok.
[02:01:58] She says, it's a,
[02:02:02] a radio thing.
[02:02:05] She says, and,
[02:02:07] I said, what, what do you put me on TikTok?
[02:02:11] She says, well, why you were talking to me about one of your things happening?
[02:02:17] I recorded it and put it on TikTok.
[02:02:23] And the week she came over, she's, Papa,
[02:02:26] I'm taking, you take in your offer my TikTok,
[02:02:30] and putting you on your own.
[02:02:32] What are you doing that for?
[02:02:34] My god, leave it alone.
[02:02:37] I said, you're open air.
[02:02:39] Can't a worms here.
[02:02:41] She says, Papa,
[02:02:44] I took me seven months to get 10,000 viewers.
[02:02:49] Seven months, she says,
[02:02:51] you surpassed me in one week.
[02:02:54] I said, well, what does that mean?
[02:02:59] It means that people like to hear you tell stories.
[02:03:05] So that's where I'm out right now.
[02:03:10] Well, it's an amazing story.
[02:03:13] And you're not just on TikTok.
[02:03:15] You're on Instagram.
[02:03:16] There's a YouTube channel that people can,
[02:03:19] if people don't have TikTok, they can watch it on YouTube.
[02:03:21] They can watch it on Instagram.
[02:03:23] I mean, we're going to even Google me and we have to get a response.
[02:03:27] It's crazy.
[02:03:29] The book is called the luckiest man in the world.
[02:03:32] It's a fantastic read.
[02:03:34] It's an unbelievable story.
[02:03:37] And if we weren't sitting here talking to the man himself,
[02:03:41] you'd have a hard time believing it.
[02:03:42] But there he is.
[02:03:44] And so definitely pick up the book and it's just incredible.
[02:03:49] Echo.
[02:03:51] Yes, sir.
[02:03:52] Do you have any questions at this time?
[02:03:53] Do you have any questions at this time?
[02:03:55] Really?
[02:03:56] Yeah.
[02:03:57] Echo usually asks, well, like, some kind of interesting question at the end.
[02:04:00] But maybe today we didn't just, you know, we covered it.
[02:04:03] I'm surprised he, because I'm surprised.
[02:04:05] I thought you're going to ask farming questions.
[02:04:07] Okay.
[02:04:08] But you're going to talk about chickens or horses or something like that.
[02:04:12] Nothing.
[02:04:13] I'm pretty straightforward.
[02:04:14] I think this time.
[02:04:15] Pop a Jake's, pop a Jake Larson.
[02:04:18] We've had you for two hours right now.
[02:04:20] I want to be respectful of your time.
[02:04:22] But if there's any other final thoughts you want to share.
[02:04:25] Amazon is the printer of my book.
[02:04:29] So, and make sure you mention my name.
[02:04:34] There is another book called the Lucky Us Man in the World.
[02:04:39] But we've found out because somebody ordered that book.
[02:04:44] And the long book came to them.
[02:04:47] So.
[02:04:48] Are we going to have to have a contest between you two to see his next.
[02:04:51] I think I don't know if I haven't even read it.
[02:04:55] So.
[02:04:56] But I want to thank you for.
[02:05:01] For the honor of sitting here.
[02:05:04] It is an honor for me.
[02:05:09] Because I think by telling this story.
[02:05:13] You will more honor those who gave their lives.
[02:05:20] For for me to be here.
[02:05:22] That I would not be here without those guys.
[02:05:26] That that sacrifice themselves for for me.
[02:05:32] There is a God.
[02:05:34] That's my final word.
[02:05:37] Well, sir.
[02:05:38] Thank you so much for joining us today.
[02:05:41] Thanks for your family to get for getting us down here.
[02:05:44] Our friend Jack that connected us.
[02:05:46] Thanks for being here.
[02:05:48] And thanks for sharing your wisdom.
[02:05:50] But most important.
[02:05:52] Thank you for your service to this great nation.
[02:05:56] You and your friends and your generation.
[02:06:00] Stood against tyranny and evil.
[02:06:03] And allow us.
[02:06:05] To live under this blessing of freedom today.
[02:06:08] So we thank you and all your brothers in arms.
[02:06:11] Well, thank you, sir.
[02:06:13] For for allowing me to do this.
[02:06:16] And I appreciate very much what you're doing for me.
[02:06:24] Well, we are grateful.
[02:06:26] grateful for you and grateful for your service and sacrifice.
[02:06:31] And the service and sacrifice of all of your comrades in arms.
[02:06:35] And especially, as you have mentioned, the real heroes.
[02:06:39] That did not come home.
[02:06:41] There are the ones.
[02:06:43] God bless them all.
[02:06:45] And we thank you.
[02:06:48] And with that, Papa Jake Larson has left the building.
[02:06:54] And clearly an honor to be able to have him on.
[02:07:02] And hear those stories.
[02:07:05] And you know, talking to him before and after.
[02:07:09] And he's a man. He kept saying he doesn't have any pain.
[02:07:16] And he's doing great.
[02:07:18] He's doing great.
[02:07:20] Because during the podcast, we weren't.
[02:07:23] We're not really yucking it up or cracking jokes.
[02:07:25] But we're downstairs.
[02:07:26] He's we're cracking jokes.
[02:07:28] And even before the podcast started, I said something about me.
[02:07:32] I keep he took a shot at me.
[02:07:34] And I went right back out and talking about being involved.
[02:07:37] And I was really sharp.
[02:07:40] Man, just an honor to be able to have him on here.
[02:07:43] And you didn't have any questions.
[02:07:45] That was kind of surprising to me.
[02:07:47] No, like my I was wondering.
[02:07:50] And actually now like kind of thinking about it more.
[02:07:53] Let's say clear, clear whatever.
[02:07:55] You always kind of wonder about the experience from.
[02:07:59] What would be in the boat, you know, landing.
[02:08:02] And then going on.
[02:08:04] He did, you know, he talked about it kind of.
[02:08:06] For like better term kind of vaguely where it'd be like, yeah, I'm dodging bullets.
[02:08:09] Yeah, running, running, trying to get away whatever.
[02:08:12] That was sort of it.
[02:08:13] It wasn't like a.
[02:08:14] Like a narrative like a boom landing.
[02:08:18] Like what happened, you know, I'm thinking, save it private saving private.
[02:08:21] Right, and all this stuff, you know, here that, you know,
[02:08:23] because there was a lot of reflections of saving private by the way.
[02:08:26] For sure, it's freaking D day.
[02:08:28] Yeah, you need the shakes like that thing.
[02:08:31] There was another one too.
[02:08:32] Oh, when he went and when he was looking for a match right for cigarettes.
[02:08:35] And then he goes, oh, hey, you got a match.
[02:08:36] He didn't say you got a match once he even burned Ryan.
[02:08:38] But he does.
[02:08:39] But he does.
[02:08:40] He was like, hey, something and he looks boom,
[02:08:42] like I had no face.
[02:08:43] Yeah, boom.
[02:08:44] That's crazy.
[02:08:45] Yeah.
[02:08:46] The book and the book has more details.
[02:08:51] And, and he notes, it's, there's a balance right of,
[02:08:55] want to read some of the book and then get some of his reflections on what he went through.
[02:09:00] So, but just, it's just awesome to have someone like that.
[02:09:04] I mean, literally to go from D day to the battle of the bulge is crazy.
[02:09:12] It's crazy.
[02:09:14] And, you know, though, he has this jacket, which I'll post on on the interwebs or whatever,
[02:09:21] but it has all the little campaigns that he was in.
[02:09:25] You know, D day, say, low, go right down Paris.
[02:09:29] I kind of rattled them off, you know,
[02:09:31] but it's just, it's unbelievable.
[02:09:34] It's an honor.
[02:09:35] Obviously, a ton to learn and a ton to reflect on.
[02:09:39] So, thanks.
[02:09:42] Thanks, Jack out there in the, in the, in the world who put this together,
[02:09:47] one of our G.J.J. to browse,
[02:09:49] made the connection told you, told you we could possibly,
[02:09:54] you know, get in touch with him and then you were kind enough to respond to him seven months after
[02:09:58] he initially sent his initial, you know, which was good.
[02:10:01] We like that timing.
[02:10:04] It's tough.
[02:10:06] But, what, when I walk away from this,
[02:10:12] I just think to myself, you know, as as Papa Jake kept saying,
[02:10:17] you know, all these, all these other individuals that didn't make it,
[02:10:20] you know, he's looking at that gravestone thinking,
[02:10:23] this guy didn't get to have the family, the life,
[02:10:28] and he did get to have that chance and guess what?
[02:10:31] So, it'll be, so it seems like we should be doing our best
[02:10:35] to live a life that is worthy of those sacrifices.
[02:10:41] Seems like a good plan.
[02:10:44] Yeah, it's, it's crazy to think, you know,
[02:10:47] now being the age that we are, to think, like how we mentioned his friend in the,
[02:10:52] in the Air Force, died like 19 years old.
[02:10:57] That's not even half your life, well, that's like your technically,
[02:11:00] you're not even a fool.
[02:11:01] It don't really, and just that's, you know, that's the end.
[02:11:05] I guess you're a full adult if you're in Hope, Minnesota
[02:11:08] because you're up at year six years old,
[02:11:10] milking 32 cows every morning.
[02:11:12] Oh, yeah, night.
[02:11:13] Oh, yeah.
[02:11:14] Yeah, that's really, that's cool.
[02:11:16] It's cool to read that stuff in the book, for sure.
[02:11:19] What it was like living back then?
[02:11:20] Yeah.
[02:11:21] They didn't have electricity.
[02:11:23] Yeah.
[02:11:24] They didn't have electricity in their house until he got out of the service in 1945.
[02:11:29] Crazy.
[02:11:29] Or we got 45.
[02:11:30] He's all like, oh, that was a big jump from the horse and buggy.
[02:11:34] Yep.
[02:11:35] Yep.
[02:11:36] We think we think like, oh, I went from a, you know, a V6 to a V8.
[02:11:42] Whoa, that was amazing change.
[02:11:44] Oh, I have so much better off now.
[02:11:46] Got that GPS now.
[02:11:47] Yeah, got that GPS system.
[02:11:48] Yeah, they're in horse and buggy. What about, what about this whole scenario?
[02:11:52] Well, you know, my school was 14 miles away.
[02:11:55] And in the wintertime, the only way to get there is by horse and slave.
[02:12:01] Slave.
[02:12:02] Yeah, man.
[02:12:03] By the way, another thing, they're not wearing Gore-Tax.
[02:12:07] Yeah.
[02:12:08] Fincellate, freaking, you know,
[02:12:10] Pio, polyester, they're in wool.
[02:12:14] Yeah.
[02:12:15] At best. Some canvas jacket, right?
[02:12:19] Yeah.
[02:12:20] Just a different time.
[02:12:21] Different time.
[02:12:22] Freaking epic.
[02:12:23] That's crazy.
[02:12:24] He, you know, he's color blind.
[02:12:26] Like all this stuff.
[02:12:27] And then he falls down.
[02:12:28] He didn't say, oh, he fell down.
[02:12:29] That was a question I should ask.
[02:12:30] Like, why be fall down?
[02:12:31] Like how do you fall just randomly?
[02:12:32] He tripped over a curb.
[02:12:34] Okay.
[02:12:35] So, you know, a parking curb.
[02:12:36] Yes, sir.
[02:12:37] He tripped over one of those.
[02:12:38] He was just like looking off ahead and just did it.
[02:12:40] Boom.
[02:12:41] It's his head color blindness cured.
[02:12:43] And what else is cured?
[02:12:44] No, the, the color blindness was cured when he got cataract surgery.
[02:12:48] Oh.
[02:12:49] There's a section in the book called Medical Miracles or something.
[02:12:52] Oh, good cat.
[02:12:53] And it covers all these things.
[02:12:54] He mentioned some of them.
[02:12:55] Oh, yeah.
[02:12:56] His shakes got curled.
[02:12:57] Yeah.
[02:12:57] Your shakes got curled.
[02:12:58] He got hit in the head.
[02:12:59] Okay. So, you're, yeah, you're the correct generation.
[02:13:01] Can you remember Nintendo Entertainment System,
[02:13:04] the original NES?
[02:13:05] I remember it, but I don't,
[02:13:07] I remember that it was a thing,
[02:13:09] but it's not something that I had.
[02:13:10] It wasn't your gym.
[02:13:11] All right.
[02:13:12] You guys, we didn't have electricity in my house.
[02:13:13] Okay.
[02:13:14] No.
[02:13:15] No.
[02:13:16] No.
[02:13:17] We didn't have any money for that kind of thing,
[02:13:21] but I, that might be too strong.
[02:13:24] My dad was like a computer,
[02:13:26] using the computers before computers were really a thing.
[02:13:29] And so he had old school computers.
[02:13:33] Yeah.
[02:13:34] But because you have an old school computer, you're not getting some games.
[02:13:37] So he started.
[02:13:38] Yeah.
[02:13:39] So he was, and plus he thought that a computer was for computing.
[02:13:42] Right?
[02:13:43] Not for playing a game.
[02:13:44] Gotcha.
[02:13:45] So there was no,
[02:13:46] we never had any of those systems.
[02:13:48] Not we never won game playing system,
[02:13:50] but we did have a computer.
[02:13:51] Do you know, do you know about old school computers?
[02:13:53] I do.
[02:13:54] Do you know what a Commodore Vic 20 is?
[02:13:56] Well, you know, that model specifically, you know?
[02:13:59] It's the first model.
[02:14:00] It's the first model.
[02:14:01] It's the first model.
[02:14:02] I want to say that the,
[02:14:05] the, the memory that came with the machine itself was 2K.
[02:14:10] And then there was some carcasses that you plugged in that gave you an extra 4K.
[02:14:17] Yeah.
[02:14:18] This computer was a week.
[02:14:19] Yes.
[02:14:20] Very weak either way.
[02:14:21] Atari.
[02:14:22] What?
[02:14:23] So you didn't even have Atari then?
[02:14:25] No, Atari.
[02:14:26] No, no, it's our brutal.
[02:14:27] It's kind of abuse.
[02:14:28] And eventually we had,
[02:14:29] we had like versions of the games that were on Atari.
[02:14:35] But instead of it being called Pac-Man,
[02:14:37] it was a generic version called like Snack Man.
[02:14:42] You know what I'm saying?
[02:14:43] Because my dad, my dad was a cheap human.
[02:14:47] And he's not, you're not spending money on anything.
[02:14:50] And this was when you get, he was part of like a sharing group where they were
[02:14:55] trade cassette tapes that had this information on it that you could play the game.
[02:15:00] Yeah.
[02:15:01] So we're talking to this.
[02:15:02] Okay.
[02:15:03] So okay.
[02:15:04] This might not be horse and buggy, but we're,
[02:15:06] Yeah.
[02:15:07] And you lived on a dirt road too.
[02:15:09] So I'm on I get it.
[02:15:10] Well, either way, the rest of the 99.9% of us that got our Nintendo entertainment system know that.
[02:15:18] There's someone you're in.
[02:15:19] When you Nintendo got kind of older.
[02:15:21] Mm-hmm.
[02:15:22] And it would jam up.
[02:15:23] Right.
[02:15:24] You put the game in, you stuff it down, and it, and it, and it, and it blinks.
[02:15:27] Or what?
[02:15:28] It doesn't turn on.
[02:15:29] So there's two two methods to get it going.
[02:15:31] Everyone knows the, the one you take the game out.
[02:15:33] You blow it.
[02:15:34] You want it because there might be dust in there.
[02:15:36] I don't know.
[02:15:37] I think it's like, I was going to go either way.
[02:15:38] That'll, you put it back in and usually works.
[02:15:40] Second method is you turn it off and you hit the side of the thing.
[02:15:44] You hit it.
[02:15:45] Just like a, even if you're a TV, you can't hit it.
[02:15:47] Yeah.
[02:15:48] Oh, yeah.
[02:15:49] We'd do it all the time.
[02:15:50] TV's kind of like that too.
[02:15:51] I think that's all Papa Jake's head was.
[02:15:54] You hit his head.
[02:15:55] Oh, shake's gone.
[02:15:56] You can see.
[02:15:57] Maybe they should have blew in his eyes or something.
[02:16:00] Maybe that would have worked.
[02:16:01] That's amazing.
[02:16:02] Nintendo.
[02:16:03] Jake.
[02:16:04] These lessons are everywhere.
[02:16:05] Lessons are everywhere.
[02:16:06] But, you know what is incredible?
[02:16:08] His, his, his, his, his, just incredibly sharp.
[02:16:11] And healthy walking up and down the stairs.
[02:16:13] No factor.
[02:16:14] Yeah.
[02:16:15] Just awesome.
[02:16:16] Makes me think about health.
[02:16:19] Yeah.
[02:16:20] Mental and physical health.
[02:16:22] Yeah.
[02:16:23] How we can try and maintain that as long as possible.
[02:16:26] Yeah.
[02:16:27] It's true.
[02:16:28] All right.
[02:16:29] Well, we got some solutions to that.
[02:16:30] Look at that segue.
[02:16:31] That's a good segue.
[02:16:32] Yeah.
[02:16:33] Oh, I kind of threw you a little softball.
[02:16:34] You're this really.
[02:16:35] Well, hey, we're working out.
[02:16:37] Yeah.
[02:16:38] Right.
[02:16:38] We're shoe pop.
[02:16:39] If I don't make us, let's face it.
[02:16:40] If there's no, if there's not a segue, we're talking about we get, I mean, we were
[02:16:44] just talking about Commodore Vic 20s.
[02:16:46] Yeah.
[02:16:47] Right.
[02:16:48] We will weigh off base.
[02:16:49] Well, so if there's no segue to get us back, you know, who knows what's happening?
[02:16:52] I ain't sure you're correct.
[02:16:53] So segue occurred.
[02:16:54] Yeah.
[02:16:55] Now we're, we're back on track.
[02:16:56] Yeah.
[02:16:57] Back into the workouts.
[02:16:58] Right.
[02:16:59] Papa Jake was 120 pounds.
[02:17:00] See, that's another thing you got to remember.
[02:17:01] It's not like it's like freaking jockel rolling up through, you know, you know, you know,
[02:17:06] you guys talk about like all the gear that you guys carry or whatever.
[02:17:09] It's like, about 120 carrying gear, but that's like some effort.
[02:17:12] Well, he said he had 75 pounds of gear plus his weapon.
[02:17:16] So we're talking, that's a massive amount.
[02:17:20] That's the over double body weight.
[02:17:22] Yeah.
[02:17:22] Now, I did.
[02:17:23] I can tell you that guys nowadays carry way more gear than they did back then for the most,
[02:17:28] especially like a knob.
[02:17:31] And knob, you were just carrying two, well, let me, let me get more specific here.
[02:17:36] The seals and Vietnam.
[02:17:38] One canteen, four grenades, bunch of bags and your weapon.
[02:17:43] Like those guys roll the lights light light.
[02:17:46] And nowadays, man, you're going, you got radios, you got so much ammo, you got body armor,
[02:17:52] you got helmet, you got night vision, you got lasers, you got extra batteries for everything.
[02:17:56] It's just a lot more, which is not good, by the way, in many cases.
[02:18:00] So make sense.
[02:18:02] Either way, when you're 120, you better be going extra light.
[02:18:06] Otherwise, that's going to take some effort.
[02:18:08] So nonetheless, that's neither here nor there as far as right now.
[02:18:13] Right now, we're trying to be as strong as we can.
[02:18:15] I don't care, 1 21 80, 1 90, 2 bills, whatever.
[02:18:18] We're trying to be as strong as we can, or yeah.
[02:18:21] And as far as we can, all this stuff, right?
[02:18:23] That's not all of us are going to reach 99.
[02:18:26] By the way, hey, this is just the reality of the situation, but we're going to try.
[02:18:29] Cool.
[02:18:30] So we're going to do good stuff for minds and our body.
[02:18:33] Don't worry, we got you.
[02:18:34] Alright, chocolate supplements.
[02:18:36] Yeah.
[02:18:37] We got you, including energy drinks.
[02:18:38] Sure, we all know about it, but we're going to go over it.
[02:18:40] Okay.
[02:18:41] Energy drinks with sugar.
[02:18:43] Bad.
[02:18:43] I'm simplifying it.
[02:18:44] Bad.
[02:18:44] Energy drinks with preservatives and poisons.
[02:18:48] Bad.
[02:18:49] Energy drinks without preservatives and poisons.
[02:18:51] Good.
[02:18:52] As long as there's no sugar.
[02:18:53] Good.
[02:18:54] Okay, perfect.
[02:18:55] Chocolate discipline, go.
[02:18:57] Energy drink, sweetened with monk fruit, fruit, natural.
[02:19:01] No preservatives, pasteurized.
[02:19:03] An actual healthy energy drink, but Copa, Alpha GPC.
[02:19:08] These are good things for you.
[02:19:10] Yeah, literally good for you.
[02:19:11] Literally good.
[02:19:12] How about what about the downside?
[02:19:13] I have yet to find a downside at all.
[02:19:16] Oh, wait, there's no downside.
[02:19:17] Oh, yeah, when you run out, I can't find the downside.
[02:19:19] We have to be watching out four downsides.
[02:19:21] What can be the downside?
[02:19:22] I can tell you what the downside is, possibly.
[02:19:24] If you drink it too late in the afternoon, you might not go to sleep early.
[02:19:29] Well, you can actually put yourself into a tough situation.
[02:19:32] If you have one at let's say six o'clock at seven o'clock at night.
[02:19:35] Yeah, and here's the thing.
[02:19:36] There's a disclaimer with that too, because that depends on your tolerance for caffeine.
[02:19:40] True.
[02:19:41] So you got to have a kind of be sensitive to it to actually have that problem.
[02:19:43] Cause only 95 milligrams.
[02:19:45] It's like a regular cut.
[02:19:46] It's actually not even that big of a croffle coffee.
[02:19:48] It's like a regular like cup cup.
[02:19:50] Does he even drink one cup of coffee anymore?
[02:19:53] I don't know.
[02:19:54] Yeah, I don't think so.
[02:19:55] I don't know.
[02:19:56] But I don't know either way.
[02:19:57] None the last.
[02:19:58] None the last.
[02:19:59] As I say.
[02:19:59] None the last.
[02:20:00] It does have a little bit caffeine for the little boost.
[02:20:02] But all the other good stuff is a healthy thing.
[02:20:05] I was in Hawaii, Kauai, my homeland.
[02:20:08] Yeah, we were.
[02:20:09] And I was talking to my dad.
[02:20:10] I did 75.
[02:20:11] So I'm telling him about him about my energy drink.
[02:20:14] But like kind of in the beginning, I was like,
[02:20:16] I'm not going to say, I'm not going to say, I'm not going to say,
[02:20:19] I'm not the only one at this table that has an energy drink.
[02:20:21] I'm preaching it.
[02:20:22] I'm just an echo Charles energy drink.
[02:20:24] And I'm preaching it.
[02:20:25] But at first, I'm like, man, why am I even telling you about this?
[02:20:28] I'm not going to say 75.
[02:20:29] Not going to drink energy drinks, but then I'm thinking, wait.
[02:20:31] Yeah, you can straight up drink this energy drink and be good.
[02:20:35] Good to go.
[02:20:36] So yeah.
[02:20:37] Be good.
[02:20:38] That's a PC.
[02:20:39] You know, a wise man.
[02:20:41] So you can get that.
[02:20:42] Yes, many different flavors you mentioned, mine is mango.
[02:20:45] The best.
[02:20:46] But I ask around.
[02:20:47] It's the best.
[02:20:48] Interesting.
[02:20:49] Maybe not to concept showing.
[02:20:50] Unless if you don't like the mango, there's all kinds of other flavors too.
[02:20:53] Sour up sniper or enjoy all this stuff.
[02:20:55] Look into it.
[02:20:56] Joccalfuel.com.
[02:20:57] So you can get this stuff.
[02:20:58] Also for your joint.
[02:20:59] Spread a pop a jake talking about his joints.
[02:21:02] Don't even hurt.
[02:21:03] Yeah.
[02:21:04] Okay, that's how I want to be.
[02:21:05] Yeah.
[02:21:06] You're saying.
[02:21:07] And currently, that's how I am.
[02:21:08] My joint's so hurt either.
[02:21:09] So I'm saying it's because of the joint warfare and the superkrill oil.
[02:21:13] You didn't bring any in a way.
[02:21:15] Did you feel it?
[02:21:16] How many days did it take before you felt it?
[02:21:18] Four days.
[02:21:19] You know, it could have been real.
[02:21:21] It was sleeping on didn't help either.
[02:21:22] But it was not a one time felt it in my needle.
[02:21:25] That's not a bed, bro.
[02:21:26] Yeah, no, the bed can make your knee.
[02:21:27] I think I'm plus you got the loose knees.
[02:21:29] The loose skinny knees.
[02:21:31] Whatever.
[02:21:32] I was doing squats.
[02:21:33] Do though.
[02:21:34] Squats on vacation.
[02:21:35] I'm just saying.
[02:21:36] Yeah.
[02:21:37] You want to stay in the game.
[02:21:38] It was probably a little bit.
[02:21:39] When you travel or just general life.
[02:21:40] Yeah.
[02:21:41] Protect yourself.
[02:21:42] D3, you can get that.
[02:21:43] You can get cold war.
[02:21:44] I just had to jack some cold war up.
[02:21:46] Yeah.
[02:21:47] Right now.
[02:21:48] Cause you know you get that little.
[02:21:50] To me when I feel that, I'm like, where's that cold war start hitting in hard.
[02:21:54] Mulk.
[02:21:55] By the way, we just have a discussion.
[02:21:59] Uh, and look, we all know that you have your favorite.
[02:22:03] Yes, sir.
[02:22:04] Which is fine.
[02:22:05] You might maybe your favorite's peanut butter, strawberry, whatever.
[02:22:07] That's cool.
[02:22:08] The fact is after a month.
[02:22:11] It's good to have that alternate opportunity to get into something.
[02:22:16] You know, it's good to have that alternate opportunity to get into something.
[02:22:19] Get into something.
[02:22:20] Getting into something chocolate.
[02:22:21] Getting into some banana cream, which is out now, by the way.
[02:22:23] Have you had the banana cream yet?
[02:22:25] I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to have banana bomber.
[02:22:31] And your assessment is, well, I didn't taste it.
[02:22:34] Oh, okay.
[02:22:35] Just came in like, it came in while I was gone and I opened it.
[02:22:38] I have.
[02:22:39] I have a very strong assessment team to taste things.
[02:22:45] It's my family.
[02:22:46] Sure.
[02:22:47] Because they don't care about anything.
[02:22:49] Yes.
[02:22:50] They will smack me with whatever.
[02:22:51] And banana bomber boom.
[02:22:53] They like that.
[02:22:54] Approved five stars across the board.
[02:22:56] Which is legit.
[02:22:58] Because they will, look at, like I said,
[02:23:00] They have no issue with telling me if something sucks.
[02:23:03] Yeah.
[02:23:04] They'll be all into it.
[02:23:05] And plus, they're also in this stuff.
[02:23:07] Is it a thing?
[02:23:09] Okay, I am, you know what, you know what a food is?
[02:23:12] Yes, right.
[02:23:13] Right.
[02:23:14] It's a thing.
[02:23:15] And I think it's more of a thing now than it ever was like when we were younger.
[02:23:19] Yeah.
[02:23:19] It wasn't a thing.
[02:23:20] No one would ever say I'm really into food.
[02:23:22] They wouldn't even say that.
[02:23:23] Right.
[02:23:24] There was no thing like that.
[02:23:25] It's just like food.
[02:23:26] It's like wine taste or, right?
[02:23:28] Like I'm into wine tasting, but instead of wine is food.
[02:23:31] I think.
[02:23:32] So I think people, kids, younger people these days,
[02:23:36] have more appreciation and sensitivity to taste.
[02:23:43] Yeah.
[02:23:44] So because I'm kind of like,
[02:23:46] Hmm.
[02:23:47] If I can stomach it, it tastes good.
[02:23:50] It's good.
[02:23:51] It's good.
[02:23:52] If I can stomach it, it tastes good.
[02:23:54] If I can't, then it's not good, right?
[02:23:56] It's a pretty binary.
[02:23:57] And if I can't, man, they're freaking,
[02:23:59] so when they start getting kind of hyped about something,
[02:24:02] then I know it's good.
[02:24:03] So banana bomber.
[02:24:04] Yeah.
[02:24:05] And that is one of those, and I don't know,
[02:24:06] maybe I'm alone on this, but maybe I'm not.
[02:24:08] Banana is a kind of where it's like,
[02:24:10] okay, but it's good.
[02:24:11] It's fine.
[02:24:12] Hmm.
[02:24:13] But let's wait, you know, when you got your more exotic fruits.
[02:24:15] Hmm.
[02:24:16] You know, when I'm ruling it with you,
[02:24:18] you can manage the ad bananas sometimes.
[02:24:20] Oddly, yes.
[02:24:21] And that's not normal.
[02:24:22] We got to send something to Tulsi because Tulsi is kind of the original.
[02:24:25] Banana at her, right?
[02:24:27] Sure.
[02:24:28] She had the specific method.
[02:24:29] Yeah, they're very innovative.
[02:24:30] Yeah.
[02:24:31] For sure.
[02:24:32] She's always on top of things.
[02:24:33] She just out ahead of the curve.
[02:24:34] No, that's not just in the game.
[02:24:36] She's got to open mine and she looks and she assesses and she comes up with a solution.
[02:24:39] Yeah, the frill and banana.
[02:24:41] You're right.
[02:24:42] So frozen rotten, but it was a rotten.
[02:24:44] Uh, we'll say, you know, I extremely, right, but, but the banana.
[02:24:48] Okay. So oddly, banana is like, whatever.
[02:24:50] That's what we should have made this signature flavor for Tulsi.
[02:24:52] Banana.
[02:24:53] Yeah.
[02:24:54] Frozen banana.
[02:24:55] Yeah.
[02:24:56] But um, it's like cucumber, where it's like, cool.
[02:24:59] cucumber's fine.
[02:25:00] But if you get something that's like way better than cucumber,
[02:25:02] then you add cucumber, cucumber makes it go to the middle of the road with it.
[02:25:06] So it kind of brings it down.
[02:25:07] Mm-hmm.
[02:25:08] That's the nature of cucumbers.
[02:25:09] And that's the nature of banana stew.
[02:25:11] For your time until a fancy hotel where they have water and there's cucumbers in the water.
[02:25:16] Yes, sir.
[02:25:17] Do you like that?
[02:25:18] I like the effort for sure, but I like the lemons.
[02:25:21] Yeah.
[02:25:22] Or in the water strawberry.
[02:25:23] We better pineapple.
[02:25:24] Pineapple all that.
[02:25:25] But okay, so cucumbers to me.
[02:25:27] Brim me some plain water.
[02:25:28] Yeah.
[02:25:29] You know, they tried the cucumber gatorade to remember back when
[02:25:31] I was young and younger than I am now, but.
[02:25:34] Sheu comber gatorade.
[02:25:35] No, no, correct.
[02:25:36] You're, you're, you're the freaking idiot on the marketing crew that was like,
[02:25:40] Hey, let's make cucumber gatorade.
[02:25:42] I don't have a chance to be fired.
[02:25:45] But surprisingly, so the point is with the banana,
[02:25:48] surprisingly, and actually not so surprisingly.
[02:25:50] So I like banana, okay, cool fine, but it brings things to banana level if it's better than banana, which is the bad thing.
[02:25:56] But you go banana cream.
[02:25:57] You're going to banana cream pie.
[02:25:59] Yeah.
[02:26:00] Yeah.
[02:26:01] It's freaking legit.
[02:26:02] It's almost like it kind of supersedes.
[02:26:04] It transcends the banana stigma.
[02:26:07] You're the same.
[02:26:08] I'm over here just here to tell you.
[02:26:10] I'm just here to tell you.
[02:26:11] And this banana cream, this is what I expected.
[02:26:14] And taste it.
[02:26:15] Yeah.
[02:26:16] But this is what I expected.
[02:26:17] That's what I expected the banana cream.
[02:26:18] You know what's interesting about this.
[02:26:19] You can tell you been gone for walks.
[02:26:21] You and I are talking to the go.
[02:26:22] It's also funny because you think maybe we had something.
[02:26:26] You know, interesting to talk about.
[02:26:27] Yeah.
[02:26:28] And we're talking about the broadsense.
[02:26:29] No.
[02:26:30] We're literally talking about cucumbers and bananas.
[02:26:31] Yeah.
[02:26:32] We're just jackdots.
[02:26:33] We're hurting people's lives.
[02:26:34] We're taking time away from them.
[02:26:37] So check it out.
[02:26:38] You're milk.
[02:26:39] You get this stuff from jockelfuel.com.
[02:26:40] You can get it.
[02:26:41] You get the drinks at walla.
[02:26:42] You can get everything at the vitamin shop.
[02:26:44] Go get that stuff up.
[02:26:46] Go get it.
[02:26:47] And by the way, jockelfuel.com, if you subscribe to any of these things, you get the shipping
[02:26:51] for free.
[02:26:52] That way we can compete with the large global corporations that are trying to get.
[02:26:58] Yeah.
[02:26:59] We're just talking to take over the world.
[02:27:00] It's true.
[02:27:01] Help us compete.
[02:27:02] Go subscribe.
[02:27:03] Yeah, man.
[02:27:04] It's true.
[02:27:05] We can help you stay healthy.
[02:27:06] You know, speaking of large global corporations, taking over the world, you know, how they,
[02:27:10] you know, use, you know, what what they do is they do this mass thing where they get the labor
[02:27:15] for it's cheap as they can.
[02:27:17] Yep.
[02:27:18] They get it free if they can.
[02:27:19] They will try.
[02:27:20] Yeah.
[02:27:21] If they can.
[02:27:22] See, it doesn't work like that.
[02:27:23] It's not sustainable.
[02:27:24] It's the same.
[02:27:25] Unlike origin.
[02:27:26] See, that is sustainable.
[02:27:27] I'll tell you why.
[02:27:28] It's all made in America.
[02:27:29] Everything.
[02:27:30] All their stuff that denim jeans got geese, jiu-jitsu stuff, the boots wallets.
[02:27:36] What a, is there belt?
[02:27:37] Belt, belt, belt, belt.
[02:27:38] Ballets.
[02:27:39] Wallets.
[02:27:40] Benes, sweatshirts, shorts.
[02:27:42] Oh yeah.
[02:27:43] Pants.
[02:27:44] We got more stuff coming.
[02:27:45] Oh yeah.
[02:27:46] We got the hunt line coming.
[02:27:47] Which the hunt line going to be versatile, too.
[02:27:50] Yeah.
[02:27:51] I was talking to Peter.
[02:27:52] I'm like, hey, you know, like the puffy jackets that everyone wears.
[02:27:56] A lot of people wear.
[02:27:57] Not super puffy, but like a thin puff.
[02:27:59] Yeah, yeah, like when you go snowboarding.
[02:28:02] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[02:28:04] But that kind of thing.
[02:28:06] When you go anywhere called people wearing that all everywhere.
[02:28:09] Yeah.
[02:28:10] I said, hey, we need that.
[02:28:11] Well, it's a war on that.
[02:28:12] So we're going to be able to have an American made one.
[02:28:15] Because these people are like, oh, well, you know, we support the environment.
[02:28:18] We give some of our, um, some of our, our, our, one percent of our profits to the
[02:28:24] environmental causes. Oh, cool. Meanwhile, you're supporting a freaking factory and
[02:28:27] China that's putting more crap into the air than your 1% could ever cover.
[02:28:33] And by the way, the people that are breathing that in is not just the people that live
[02:28:36] there.
[02:28:37] It's also worldwide and the slave labor that they have making these things.
[02:28:41] So we get it.
[02:28:42] You want to say how nice you are.
[02:28:45] We get it.
[02:28:46] You want to talk about your, well, how positive you're doing for the environment.
[02:28:50] Yeah.
[02:28:51] You're not telling the truth.
[02:28:52] Yeah.
[02:28:53] So we're going to, we got, we got your cover or do you say so.
[02:28:57] There's an expression.
[02:28:58] B. T. N.
[02:28:59] All right, B. T.
[02:29:00] Stence for better than nothing.
[02:29:02] Right.
[02:29:02] So people you use that in a good way.
[02:29:04] Like I said, it's better than nothing.
[02:29:05] Right.
[02:29:05] Yeah.
[02:29:06] Yeah.
[02:29:06] He's think workouts, freaking, um, paying attention to your kids.
[02:29:10] Uh, like all this stuff, you can use B. T.
[02:29:12] And the B. T. N.
[02:29:13] Method.
[02:29:13] It's better than nothing.
[02:29:14] It's like looking at the bright side of things, which is, it's not all
[02:29:17] bad.
[02:29:18] You seem saying that's what makes it a tricky thing.
[02:29:20] But let's face it.
[02:29:21] We want to go, what do you, how do you do it?
[02:29:24] The low res, the freaking,
[02:29:25] blue black rule black and white, right?
[02:29:27] B. T. N.
[02:29:28] It's not good.
[02:29:29] Who do the best you can state of?
[02:29:30] Yeah.
[02:29:31] All right.
[02:29:32] So you start giving 1% to something that is a 50% detriment.
[02:29:36] Yeah.
[02:29:37] That's B. T. N.
[02:29:38] That's bad.
[02:29:38] Yeah.
[02:29:39] It seems to be better than nothing true.
[02:29:40] Yeah.
[02:29:41] It's also 49% bad.
[02:29:42] Yeah.
[02:29:43] Freaking savages.
[02:29:45] So origin, you say supply chain, taking care of.
[02:29:49] American, man, taking care of.
[02:29:52] American economy being stimulated.
[02:29:55] Taking care of.
[02:29:56] Taking care of.
[02:29:57] Jobs being created.
[02:29:58] Yes, sir.
[02:29:59] Good job.
[02:29:59] Environment being saved.
[02:30:00] Good job.
[02:30:01] You talk to all of our people there, making stuff, bro.
[02:30:04] They'll tell you all about it.
[02:30:05] Smiling.
[02:30:06] Yeah.
[02:30:06] Oh, man.
[02:30:07] You did tell you.
[02:30:08] What did you say?
[02:30:09] Dot com.
[02:30:10] Dot com.
[02:30:10] That's your biggest concern.
[02:30:11] Also,
[02:30:12] Jocco is a store called JoccoStore.
[02:30:14] JoccoStore.com.
[02:30:15] So we can get you discipline equals freedom.
[02:30:17] Sure, it's hats, hoodies.
[02:30:19] That kind of cool stuff.
[02:30:20] Stuff this is good.
[02:30:22] It's when you want to represent and we're representing on this path.
[02:30:27] You know what decentralized command is?
[02:30:29] Yes, sir.
[02:30:30] Okay.
[02:30:31] So sometimes, is there such a thing as too much decentralized command?
[02:30:33] Yes, sir.
[02:30:34] So, there happens to be where your kid's so we're down with that, right?
[02:30:38] Young Aiden out there decentralized command, making stuff happen.
[02:30:41] Yes.
[02:30:42] Guess what else he made.
[02:30:43] No.
[02:30:44] Can this.
[02:30:45] So, it's funny because in my house, I don't like candles.
[02:30:50] Right?
[02:30:51] Yeah.
[02:30:52] I don't like the smell of them.
[02:30:53] I don't like the more heat being produced in my house.
[02:30:55] I don't like a fire hazard up in here.
[02:30:57] Right?
[02:30:58] I don't like the the the the.
[02:31:01] What's that word?
[02:31:03] The atmosphere that it gives off, right?
[02:31:05] It's so soft.
[02:31:06] Yeah.
[02:31:07] Right?
[02:31:08] You want to make fire.
[02:31:09] We'll make a fire.
[02:31:10] We'll go with that.
[02:31:11] A candle?
[02:31:12] Yes, sir.
[02:31:13] No, we're not happening.
[02:31:14] We got a joccal candle.
[02:31:15] And apparently we have an echo candle.
[02:31:16] Yes, sir.
[02:31:17] So that's out there.
[02:31:18] An echo soap.
[02:31:19] Two.
[02:31:20] By the way.
[02:31:21] So, hey man.
[02:31:22] Do you think sounds good?
[02:31:24] Yeah.
[02:31:25] Yeah.
[02:31:26] Yeah.
[02:31:27] In a good way this time.
[02:31:28] But yeah, there's good stuff on there.
[02:31:30] Joccal store.
[02:31:31] Also on joccal store.
[02:31:33] Sure.
[02:31:34] The shirt locker.
[02:31:35] A lot of updates to that one.
[02:31:37] Upgrades.
[02:31:38] Upgrade sounds like murder, you know, just maybe just, you know, some bad things that are now not bad.
[02:31:43] I like the way you take your ideas and post them on the wall.
[02:31:46] It's kind of funny.
[02:31:49] I give you that.
[02:31:50] I'm trying to help over here.
[02:31:52] You seem saying either way.
[02:31:53] Upgrades on the shirt locker.
[02:31:55] Check those out.
[02:31:56] Short locker.
[02:31:57] If you don't know what that is.
[02:31:58] That's a new shirt every month.
[02:32:00] subscription situation.
[02:32:01] Every month.
[02:32:02] They're all cool.
[02:32:03] They're a little bit more creative.
[02:32:04] You know, you know, inject Daniel does.
[02:32:07] Oh, yeah.
[02:32:08] Well, no.
[02:32:09] He gets the he's he has enough shirts, right?
[02:32:12] Oh, yeah.
[02:32:13] It's pretty common in America.
[02:32:14] You have enough shirts.
[02:32:15] Yes, sir.
[02:32:16] But he still wants to support.
[02:32:17] Yeah.
[02:32:18] And he's seen some shirts and have come out.
[02:32:20] Where he's been like, that one would have been nice.
[02:32:22] So he gift, he gets them.
[02:32:24] And then he gives them to the appropriate person.
[02:32:26] Right.
[02:32:27] Yeah.
[02:32:28] That makes sense.
[02:32:29] Really.
[02:32:30] JD.
[02:32:31] Make an app.
[02:32:32] Subscribe to the podcast.
[02:32:33] Speaking of subscriptions.
[02:32:34] Wherever you subscribe to podcast.
[02:32:35] We're just talking about podcast reviews.
[02:32:38] Yeah.
[02:32:39] It's cool.
[02:32:40] You want to leave a review.
[02:32:41] Yeah.
[02:32:42] I'm just looking at the reviews.
[02:32:43] There are permanent on the Apple reviews are permanent.
[02:32:44] So you go back in time.
[02:32:46] And you go read early reviews about echo Charles Madd.
[02:32:49] The world wasn't roofless place.
[02:32:51] That is totally my fault.
[02:32:53] I, you know, I get what he called.
[02:32:55] I started on the wrong foot.
[02:32:57] What's that expression?
[02:32:58] You know, it got off on the wrong foot.
[02:32:59] This is what my first analogy.
[02:33:01] If I remember correctly was like, you know, he got a balance.
[02:33:04] The dichotomies or whatever you were talking about back then.
[02:33:07] And I made the analogy of a glob of mercury on a trash can lid.
[02:33:13] Oh, that's right.
[02:33:14] And bro, I'm just saying imagine that.
[02:33:16] Try to balance it.
[02:33:17] It's the same thing.
[02:33:18] It's a perfect analogy when you think about it.
[02:33:19] It's just kind of out from fucking left field or whatever.
[02:33:23] And I get it.
[02:33:24] I took heat for it.
[02:33:25] Yeah, you took some heavies in the early days.
[02:33:28] Doing better now.
[02:33:29] K-Dogs on the other day.
[02:33:30] You got his first taste of social media, you know, attacks.
[02:33:36] He even paid out of the lane.
[02:33:39] So anyways, subscribe to this.
[02:33:40] Check out Jockel on Ravlinger.
[02:33:41] We'll call it another one tomorrow.
[02:33:44] So those should be up hitting some pretty interesting topics with my brother, Darrell Cooper,
[02:33:49] grounded podcast, the Warrior Kid podcast.
[02:33:53] And we have Jockel Underground, Jockel Underground.com.
[02:33:56] This is our alternative platform.
[02:33:58] In case we get attacked, banned, shadow banned, which apparently is a thing.
[02:34:06] Now, which has happened.
[02:34:07] Have you been shadow banned?
[02:34:08] I don't think I'm down.
[02:34:10] I don't even fluent.
[02:34:11] Hmm.
[02:34:12] And you never know this piece.
[02:34:13] Maybe I need to take over your pages to post it all my controversial stuff.
[02:34:16] Oh, yeah, so controversial.
[02:34:19] Well, it is interesting.
[02:34:20] You know, it is interesting.
[02:34:21] But you wouldn't think that there'd be anything that they would look at me and go, yeah,
[02:34:25] we need to suppress this guy.
[02:34:27] But hey, here we are, literally being suppressed.
[02:34:30] So we have to have a backup plan.
[02:34:32] We have to have a contingency plan in place.
[02:34:34] So that's where we have Jockel Underground.com.
[02:34:36] If you want to help us build and maintain that across $18.8 in 18 cents a month, that helps
[02:34:43] us build it and maintain it.
[02:34:45] We give you back another additional podcast.
[02:34:47] Do you need more podcasts?
[02:34:51] Probably not.
[02:34:52] Maybe not.
[02:34:53] But maybe you like to chill.
[02:34:54] Maybe you like to hear about some alternative topics.
[02:34:56] And maybe you just want to support either way we appreciate it.
[02:34:59] Also, if you can't support us, we'll support you.
[02:35:01] If you can't afford $8.18 a month.
[02:35:03] That's cool.
[02:35:04] Email assistance at jockel Underground.com.
[02:35:07] We have a YouTube channel, which there's some really good videos on there.
[02:35:14] And most of the really good videos have that extra little component.
[02:35:18] That extra thing that just makes them hit.
[02:35:22] Yes, sir.
[02:35:23] And that thing usually comes from me.
[02:35:25] The assistant director.
[02:35:28] Sure.
[02:35:29] Yeah.
[02:35:30] Well, when Kerry was in the hot seat, Kate, I had to kind of go a little bit deep on
[02:35:34] that one.
[02:35:35] Yeah, you've embraced that role quite nicely.
[02:35:40] It's great.
[02:35:41] We're happy.
[02:35:42] That's just the way it works.
[02:35:43] So subscribe to YouTube channel and check out the videos.
[02:35:45] Also, you can see what Papa Jake looks like.
[02:35:51] And 99 years old.
[02:35:52] 99 years old.
[02:35:53] 99 years old.
[02:35:54] Precious.
[02:35:55] Also, psychological warfare.
[02:35:57] It's an album we did back in the day.
[02:35:59] Very useful album gets us past our moments of weakness.
[02:36:04] You ever think about, and I'm not saying new jockel.
[02:36:06] I'm saying to our people, you ever think about the day where you're about to slip or
[02:36:10] you're about to skip the workout.
[02:36:12] What if jockels like right there?
[02:36:13] Not yelling, not yelling, by the way.
[02:36:15] Just telling you, hey, like hey, let's not skip this workout.
[02:36:18] In fact, here's some good reasons why you shouldn't skip this workout.
[02:36:21] So I'm saying, and it was just telling you, practical advice to not skip the workout.
[02:36:26] You probably do the workout.
[02:36:27] You probably do the workout.
[02:36:28] So it's psychological warfare.
[02:36:29] It's straight up.
[02:36:30] So you get that, and you get that wherever you can get MP3s.
[02:36:35] It's a good one.
[02:36:36] Also, if you want to hang something awesome on your wall, go to flipsidecampus.com, which
[02:36:41] is Dakota Myers company, and he makes awesome stuff to hang on your wall.
[02:36:45] That's what it is made in America.
[02:36:47] Got some books.
[02:36:48] Obviously, first book, Lucky's Man in the World.
[02:36:50] Stories from the Life of Papa Jake, by Jake Larsen.
[02:36:54] It's a great book.
[02:36:55] We skimmed the surface today, go check it out, support the man himself.
[02:37:02] Also, final spin.
[02:37:03] Had that story come out, had that book come out, and check that one out.
[02:37:10] If you want to check that one out, I would recommend you don't read it on a plane like
[02:37:15] JPDNL if you're going to get embarrassed when you're crying.
[02:37:17] I'm not saying you're going to cry, but I'm saying it's an emotional book.
[02:37:22] It's an emotional roller coaster.
[02:37:24] So check that out.
[02:37:25] There's some lessons in there.
[02:37:27] Leadership, strategy, and tactics field manual.
[02:37:28] The code, the evaluation of protocol, discipline, equals freedom field manual.
[02:37:32] Way of the warrior kid, one, two, three.
[02:37:34] Christmas is coming.
[02:37:36] I don't care what you could be a billionaire.
[02:37:39] You can't get a kid, a better gift than those four books.
[02:37:41] That is a fact.
[02:37:42] There's nothing you can get a kid that you know better than those books.
[02:37:48] Nothing.
[02:37:49] Nothing.
[02:37:50] There's nothing better.
[02:37:51] That's a bold statement.
[02:37:52] And I stand by it 100%.
[02:37:54] There's nothing that could have better influence on a kid than those four books.
[02:37:58] When, okay, do you remember the date that part one way or the way you keep coming?
[02:38:02] I want to say 2016.
[02:38:03] Okay, 16.
[02:38:04] So we got what five years in the bank.
[02:38:07] Maybe a little bit more than five years.
[02:38:10] My daughter was eight now.
[02:38:12] Still demands.
[02:38:14] I read every single night.
[02:38:16] Part one.
[02:38:18] We just finished it.
[02:38:19] Again.
[02:38:20] Just the best gift you can give for a kid.
[02:38:23] So hook that up.
[02:38:24] Also Mikey in the Dragons for the Little Little Kids, best little kids book that's ever
[02:38:28] been written.
[02:38:29] That's what I've been hearing a lot.
[02:38:33] You know when dads post and say they have a hard time making it through the book without
[02:38:39] tearing up.
[02:38:40] That's what we're at.
[02:38:42] Yeah, if you let it for sure.
[02:38:44] That's kind of where we're at.
[02:38:46] Without face back worth and then extreme ownership and the economy of leadership.
[02:38:51] Also we have Eshlam front, which is a leadership consultancy.
[02:38:54] We solve problems through leadership.
[02:38:56] Leadership is the solution.
[02:38:58] If you need help with the leadership inside your organization, go to Eshlam front.com.
[02:39:01] You can also find out about our live events there.
[02:39:04] Whether it's the master, whether it's field training exercises, EF battlefield.
[02:39:09] You can check that out.
[02:39:10] Next, musters in Dallas, Texas, by the way, March 24th and 25th.
[02:39:15] We have online training program.
[02:39:19] You can't get good at GJ2 in one day.
[02:39:23] You can't get good at basketball in one day.
[02:39:24] You can't get a good guitar in one day.
[02:39:26] You can't get good at leadership in one day.
[02:39:28] You also can't get a good at leadership from reading one book one time and thinking you got
[02:39:33] it.
[02:39:34] It doesn't work like that.
[02:39:35] That's why we made the extreme ownership academy.
[02:39:36] If you want to come, you want to ask questions.
[02:39:38] You want to interact with me, with life, with the rest of the EF team.
[02:39:43] Come on there.
[02:39:44] Get your team ownership.com.
[02:39:45] If you want to help service members, active and retired their families, gold star families,
[02:39:49] check out Mark Lee's mom, mom and Lee.
[02:39:52] She's got a charity organization.
[02:39:54] If you want to donate or you want to get involved, you want to help veterans, go to
[02:40:00] America's mightyoriers.org.
[02:40:04] If you want more of my over emotional episodes or you need more of Ecos exasperating
[02:40:14] explorations, you can find us on the inner web.
[02:40:18] On Twitter, on the gram and on Facebook, Echo Charles.
[02:40:24] I am a juggle willing and don't forget that you can also check out Story Time with
[02:40:30] Papa Jake.
[02:40:33] On Instagram, on TikTok, on YouTube.
[02:40:37] Great, great stuff to watch.
[02:40:40] And to all the service men and women, past president future.
[02:40:45] Thank you.
[02:40:46] And especially to those of you that served in World War II, whether you're here with us
[02:40:52] in this life or you moved on to the next, we will not forget what you did for us and
[02:40:59] for mankind and to our police, law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, E&T's, dispatchers,
[02:41:09] correction officers, board of patrol, secret service and all the first responders out there.
[02:41:13] Thank you for your service, which keeps us safe here on the home front.
[02:41:21] And everyone else out there.
[02:41:26] This life is a gift.
[02:41:29] It's a gift and I'll tell you something else.
[02:41:31] It is a fleeting gift.
[02:41:34] And every day that we have is a one day closer to death and as Papa Jake said, you can't
[02:41:42] turn back time.
[02:41:45] You cannot turn back time in the end, even forever is too short.
[02:41:53] So follow the example of this brave man that we heard from today, Jake Larson, and live
[02:42:00] every day to the utmost and you do that by going out there and getting after it.
[02:42:10] Until next time, this is Echo and Jocco out.