What's The Scuttlebutt Podcast
Step into history with The What’s The Scuttlebutt Podcast (WTSPWWII), your go-to source for deep dives into the events, untold stories, and extraordinary individuals of World War II. In some episodes, we bring you firsthand accounts from veterans who served on the front lines, offering their personal experiences and unique perspectives on the realities of war. We also sit down with acclaimed authors who have dedicated their careers to uncovering hidden narratives and shedding light on lesser-known aspects of the conflict. But we don’t stop at books and battlefield accounts—we also explore the world of WWII cinema. From directors and producers to screenwriters, we talk with the creative minds behind the films that bring history to life on the big screen. For those who live history firsthand, we feature dedicated WWII reenactors who meticulously recreate battles, uniforms, and daily life from the era, offering an immersive glimpse into the past. Whether you’re a history enthusiast, a military buff, or simply fascinated by the human stories that emerged from this defining moment in history, WTSPWWII is your ultimate destination. Join us as we honor the past, celebrate the heroes, and preserve the legacy of World War II for generations to come.
What's The Scuttlebutt Podcast
Remembering Jake Larson
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Digital Fortune Media proudly presents the What's the Scuttlebutt podcast with your hosts, Don Abernappy, Jeff Kopsetta, and Dennis Walker.
SPEAKER_01Welcome everybody to a unscheduled episode of the What's the Scuttlebutt podcast, but a very important episode. This is a memorial episode, if you will, for the TikTok star World War II veteran known as Papa Jake Larson. Jake Larson, a beloved World War II veteran and social media star known as Papa Jake, who captivated millions with his story, has died. He was 102 years old. Papa Jake died peacefully and was even cracking jokes till the very end. His granddaughter Michaela Larson wrote on TikTok. I am so thankful to have shared Papa Jake with all of you. You meant the world to him, she continued. When the time is right, I will continue to share Papa Jake's stories and keep his memory alive. We appreciate all the kind words and post, as Papa would say. Love you all the most. And so I wanted to share with you our interviews with Papa Jake. Um I got on the TikTok back in 2020 and learned of Papa Jake almost instantly. Obviously, because my algorithm. I reached out to his granddaughter, asked if I could schedule an interview. She said sure. And we made it happen. To be honest, I didn't know what to think when I went into this because sometimes content is all about the editing. And with Papa Jake, it was not about the editing. Papa Jake was charismatic, funny, sharp as attack, entertaining as hell. And he's one of those guests that you want, one of those guests you love. He's the type of guest you pull the string, you let it go, you sit back and you let him talk. He would go and he would talk for hours. Each of our interviews were probably two hours in length before editing. He had so much content. He's probably up there with Jared Frederick as the most uh returned. He's probably tied or maybe one episode behind uh Dr. Jared Frederick as far as the most returns to uh this podcast for a guest. Papa Jake was on the show three times. My first interview with him was July 12th, 2020. Uh the second interview was on September 6th of 2020. And then our follow-up interview, our last interview was with him on November 2nd. And our follow-up interview was with him on November 4th, 2020. I've taken all three of those episodes, trimmed them out, and made one nice long episode in remembrance of Papa Jake Larson.
SPEAKER_02Hello.
SPEAKER_01Hello, how are you doing, Mr. Larson?
SPEAKER_02The name is Jake. Don't give me that Mr. Larson. That was my dad's name. And he passed away when he was 85.
SPEAKER_01How are things going with you, Jake? How are things in beautiful California today?
SPEAKER_02It is great. It is great.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I missed the weather down there. We've been getting a lot of rain here in Florida because of the hurricanes that recently swept through and hit Texas. So uh we've been getting a lot of rain, and there is concern that way we may be getting a tropical storm this weekend. So hopefully that won't happen because uh, well, I don't like my stuff getting blown away.
SPEAKER_02I'm glad I'm living in California. Uh we we used to go through that when I lived in Minnesota. We we'd have uh tornadoes and uh w we didn't even call them tornadoes at the time. We we called them uh cyclones.
SPEAKER_01Cyclones, yep. You know, it's interesting you bring up the phrase cyclones because I was watching the weather channel this weekend because of the concerns of hurricanes and tropical storms, and they started using the word cyclone, which I hadn't heard anybody use in the longest time, so I thought that was interesting to hear that they didn't want to quite call them hurricanes, and so they were talking about the perspective of cyclones coming through.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. It's strange, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. I appreciate your time once again. You know, the last episode you were on, um, our listeners thoroughly enjoyed it. Our download numbers were through the roof. We got a lot of new listeners to the program. So, first and foremost, let me thank your fans over at TikTok. And for you guys who don't know, uh, this is Papa Jake. I found him on TikTok, and you can find him on TikTok at Storytime with Papa Jake. Uh other great little one-minute videos where he goes over some of his uh uh World War II history, and that's kind of how I found him. And I figured with the limitations of TikTok and one-minute videos, why not bring two people a long form interview? And so this is part two. The last time we left off, we briefly got in your baston um saga, but we pretty much left off at stand low, so I think we should pick up there. So you you made it through D-Day, you made it through the landings, you made it through San Low. Um, best of your recollection, where do we pick up from there?
SPEAKER_02Uh yep.
SPEAKER_01Okay, oh yes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I don't know if I told you the r the rest of Sandlow.
SPEAKER_01No, we can we can start there.
SPEAKER_02When it ca came uh t to to the end of San Low and uh uh I uh we were we were being shelled all all day and and uh I don't work during the day, see. Uh uh I'm uh I'm a freelance guy. I I operate G3 from 7 30 at night till 7 30 in the morning.
SPEAKER_01That's correct. I remember last episode you were telling us that you had just been given that shift. You said, hey, you're told go grab a nap and come back because you're working a 13-hour shift.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, that's that's the way it goes. But but uh anyway after uh w we had just captured Sandlow and the Germans uh were were pretty determined that they kept uh firing artillery in there. And uh 730, man, I'm relieved and uh I'll have something to eat and uh I had for a ditch. Just a country road ditch. There's a a bank on the side of that ditch that I peg in my shelter hat and uh pin it down at the bottom and crawl in there and fall asleep. Unbeknownst to me, those Germans firing a those hundred and fifty-five millimeter cannon over over me. What one of the shells just made it over me and landed on the road and it was a dud. Thank you, you guys from Czechoslovakia who was forced to make the shells.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I guess if there's one benefit to slave labor and inscripted labor, it's that they're not exactly motivated to make sure the products work. So we got a lot of lot of life saved due to sabotage by the uh the forced laborers over in Germany.
SPEAKER_02So they they got the bomb disposal squad out there, and they were sandbagging that thing and gonna blow it up. And it was just about two o'clock in the afternoon, and I woke up. See, see, I could sleep through anything. Pounding and people were talking about if you did not put your hand on me, I would not wake up. So so uh I woke up and these guys were walking around up there on that road, and uh took the lining out of my my helmet and put in some water there and brushed my teeth and uh dumped that water out. I was gonna put in a little more and and shave. And somebody up on the road says, What the hell are you doing down there? I says, I just brushed my teeth. I said, shave now. God, he says, Come reclear this place. He says, We got a hundred and fifty-five millimeter shell that came right over you and landed on the road, and we're sandbagging it. We're gonna blow it up.
SPEAKER_01That would have been a heck of a uh wake-up call.
SPEAKER_02My my life has been ever thing that happened has been close. But uh close only counts in hand grenades and horseshoe.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_02So uh I had to get the story in because uh my life i is still that way. At ninety-seven years old, I don't have an ache or a pain in my body, no arthritis, no same thing. I I I do have eleven stents in me. W which is a pretty unusual thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's probably what's giving me good circulation.
SPEAKER_01Oh, absolutely. Your uh your valves are nice and wide open. Now on a previous interview, you're talking about a lot of times throughout the war when you found yourself in a near-death experience, you felt that the young man who sadly lost his life to a uh bullet on the beach when you asked him for a cigarette, you felt that uh a lot of times he was looking out for you. Do you think maybe he was looking out for you that morning too?
SPEAKER_02Uh uh I uh I I think I had help from above from from ever from everyone. Uh it it it is m my life was too chancy without help from someone. Uh and it certainly wasn't me. I I I was just an ordinary soldier. But but things just kept happening to my benefit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Did you find as the war went on that you kind of when you actually had time to sit down and process things? Obviously, when things are going on, you're just going through the motions, you're doing your training, you're doing your job. But did you find yourself when things got a little quiet or you had a little RR, as seldom as that was, that you started to get a little bit of survivor's guilt?
SPEAKER_02No, I ne I never felt like that. I I I thought we and uh everybody that I was working with we we were determined. We had this determination. We were not going to back down for the Germans and uh w we were gonna clean them out of France. And uh we did. We did. We actually uh in plain terms, we kicked their ass.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02And uh it uh uh I I I don't like to say uh nasty words or but I can't explain it any better.
SPEAKER_01Not a problem.
SPEAKER_02We we just did that.
SPEAKER_01So uh so you just got yelled at. They're getting ready to blow up that um more that round that didn't go off. They sandbagged it. I'm sure you quickly gathered up your belongings and got it. I got it out of there.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes. Uh I I went and found something to eat, and uh there there was always something open for the mess for uh uh the guys that uh worked in at night. W we had our lunch at night in the middle of the night at twelve o'clock, we'd have uh our our dinner. Life was strictly uh different for me than ordinary soldiers and uh I took advantage of that.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Like like w when we when we went to Paris, I walked around during the day and checked things out. And uh I I went to the Louvre. I'm I'm color I was colorblind then, I was born colorblind. And uh I I did not appreciate the Louvre. I I I I I I am one of those guys that uh could look at a painting and say, Man, I could have done better than that, you know.
SPEAKER_01I feel the same way about tattoos, that's why I don't have any. I'm like, why do I want to spend that kind of money for that kind of wh why why buy something like that or why save something like that?
SPEAKER_02Man, uh some some child I know uh does better work than that with the crayons.
SPEAKER_01Well, we know we know that the Germans were in possession of France for a good period of time. We've all seen the pictures of Hitler in front of the Eiffel Tower and and going around to all the monuments. What sort of condition did they leave uh Paris in when they when they hightailed it out of there?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you you wouldn't know that they were there.
SPEAKER_01Really? They're that respectful to the city and to the arts.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. The only way you knew that they weren't there is to peep people suddenly become free and that they were jolly and uh they were hugging you and kissing you. Hey, thanks for the liberation. Uh that's you that the the Germans they did not sack Paris. They uh made it a free city. And uh while while they made it a free city, the French uh pre free French came in there with uh cars and machine guns and everything, and uh throw throwing these uh little top cop cocktails at the Germans were clearing out, and they threw these monotonic cops into those trucks and uh flames would come out and those Germans come out of there loaded with gasoline and stuff on them and burning uh it was a kind of a an uneven fight. But I did not go through what those free French people did. So uh I I'm my opinion now that they shouldn't have done that. But uh who knows how they were treated for four years. Uh if if they were caught, they were shot.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02There was no pleading, not guilty or so or so. They just shot 'em. And not only did they shoot them, they probably shot the family too.
SPEAKER_01Or or worse, especially if they're of the female persuasion, if you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um I uh uh uh stayed at the Normandy Hotel, and that was the first shower I had since D-Day.
SPEAKER_01I know it was a long time ago, and it's kind of hard to recall, you know, super in-depth memories, but what was it like to experience someone else getting their freedom back fully? Because here, obviously, here in America, we we um we don't take for you know, we kind of take for granted the freedoms of which we have. I mean, we're standing on TV right now with all the craziness going on, but you're someone who actually witnessed uh not only did you witness, but you participated in the uh reclaiming of a country's freedom and have that handed back to the people. What is it like to actually watch somebody when they've been living on yeah, and like you said, the Germans were I don't want to use the word term nice, but they were less harsh on the people of Paris than they were in other places. You know, they didn't completely destroy the town.
SPEAKER_02Um but they were still under them toe. They had to toe the line and uh obey. Three pe three people don't like to obey. They don't like to scrape and uh bow bow to someone. Uh they they they were joyous they didn't speak English. But they demonstrated English because it it hugs and kisses. It doesn't matter who they're from. The language doesn't count. It's uh it's the way you give them. The appreciation they they showed. Uh uh it's an unb unbelievable thing to go through. But but but we were happy, yeah. We we were happy to be there.
SPEAKER_01And I don't think a lot of people realize how you know my grandfather was over there in the war, he he did grave registration in Europe. Um so obviously I'm one generation removed with my parents, but um I don't think people realize how beneficial of what uh well obviously freeing countries from tyranny is beneficial, but uh just uh for the sake of what I'm getting to, uh you being an American, seeing people uh who have had their freedoms taken away, seeing people who've been going through terrible things, uh and then you're four years. For four years You and your entire generation witness that, and it's burned into your brain of how valuable and how delicate freedom is, and then you guys bring that back here to the states uh and you remind your children of that, and your children remind their grandchildren of their children and your grandchildren of that. Uh and I think the world itself has benefited greatly from that sharing of that experience, the reminder of that experience. But I'm almost wondering if we're getting uh just far enough removed now that on a worldwide scale, um, the current generations they don't realize what happened back then and how delicate and how much of a gift true, honest to God freedom is. And I wonder if that's why we're starting to see some of the people uh doing these resentful things that they're doing now.
SPEAKER_02Uh I I'm I'm truly amazed w with these little talks. Uh like right now, and uh the ones I have with my granddaughter and you the results stagger me. Like I got tears thinking about it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I've got over a million followers that have looked at myself. I don't think I even deserve that. It's those people that are buried over there. They made it possible for me to be here.
SPEAKER_01Yes, but you you carry a very valuable role. It's your I don't want to say job or duty, but it the it's the the task that you have taken on yourself is to share their stories because obviously they can't. And um obviously I'm a living historian, I'm a World War II reenactor, and a lot of the people who listen to this podcast are. And what we try to do is talk to gentlemen like you and your colleagues and people of your generation so that we can learn as much as we can so we can take that task on and share your story when you're not able to. And as an example, uh today's two uh when what is today, Tuesday? Wednesday. Uh uh tomorrow night, I'm actually driving two and a half hours going up to an airport in Zephyr Hills uh to uh participate in the filming of a documentary where uh they're filming the B-roll, if you will, so that when they're talking to a vet, um they cut to the action scenes. And I'm actually going up there in my uh 101st Airborne impressionist companies rented out a hangar, they got a C47. And so me and my friends are going up there. We're going to play the roles uh of the men of your generation of the 101st Airborne so that when the program hits TV or the film circuit wherever it's going, we can do our part and taking the information that we've gotten from your generation and keeping that message and that story alive. And that's one uh one of the things that's most important to me with this podcast is to interview vets like yourself and Your brother and get that message out there and have permit available sorts of people to carry the data that they want, and then we can also learn the message and carry that on so that we can continue to try to uh carry on the message of and what came from the war after that some people think we're trying to glorify war, but we're not. We're trying to remind people of the gift that came from it, why it had to happen, why it was so necessary, and why it's so important to remember the horrible details so that we can appreciate the package of the gift that came from it in the form of somewhat worldwide peace, with the exception of the communist countries.
SPEAKER_02And uh I I tell people uh I I think I put hope on the map.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And uh I have uh friends who said uh, my God, Jake, you you you're given all that information, how much are they paying you? I I said, uh, I'm not in it for for money. I said, uh uh we're doing this to honor those that that gave their life for me to be here. Those cemeteries are full over there. We left thousands and thousands of of soldiers. And uh I I lived that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02At the 75th anniversary of D-Day, I was down there on Omaha Beach Cemetery, and and to tell you the truth, that's the first time I was in a military cemetery. Uh I came in on Omaha Beach with with part of the of the first division. We had the first and twenty-ninth division and operation sergeant, I had to come in with them. W w uh I had five reporters with with their television cameras following me and they said w walk out amongst the the graves and uh stop start reading w one of the w inscriptions. I walked out and the first inscription I read w was a private from the first division. I I I I don't know if I I did the proper thing, but I backed up and raised my hat in salute to him. That that has gone viral that that picture of me. I I didn't uh uh I still to this day don't know if that's a proper way of uh acknowledging all those guys that gave their life. Over nine thousand on Omaha Beach alone. And then there's sixty thousand that gave their life at the Battle of the Bolt. Not only sixty thousand gave their life they save a little uh uh uh a postscript uh after the sixty thousand gave their life, ten thousand missing. How is that possible?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's you know trying to well one, I guess a little bit back then the logistics was you know, you're trying to keep track of all these men and these numbers on both sides. Then you have in the case of the stone and bell of the ball and the artillery fire was so intense, at least I've been led to believe through reading and watching shows, that um a lot of the guys were just hit with more, you know, artillery fire on both sides, and there's just nothing left of them to claim. And then obviously you have to be a 10,000.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, d the Germans captured a lot when they first came in uh uh uh on December sixteenth. They came in that morning. And uh man, uh that that's an experience.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'm wide awake because uh uh uh I I haven't I was working nights, see, and uh it kind of gave the self away at two o'clock in the morning. That that's when a uh uh uh a guard, uh a corporal guard, uh MP corporal guard on post number six came in and he was so excited, he he saluted me. I'm a staff sergeant. And uh you don't salute non-commissioned officers. And he was so excited, he saluted me. And uh he he looking right at me, he knew I was a sergeant because he says, Sergeant, I'm from post number six. I was walking my post and I looked up and uh there were German parachuters coming down. I says, What did you do? He says, I ran and jumped in my Jeep and came up here to tell you. I says, Good shot. So that was the start of the battle of the bows. And uh to think I was in on it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. How obviously you guys had limited people, because the whole thing was, for better lack of a better phrase, an ambush on a huge scale. You guys no one was taking ever push to the RDA forest in the middle of the wintertime. Uh and so you had a limited amount of troops to put up on what now has become the front line, uh, and then we've all heard stories where uh you know the the MPs went out and started pulling people out of uh R and R and off of leave and all that uh due to uh the uh rapid influx of men into the area. There was lack of supplies, lack of ammo, lack of winter gear. But roughly in your uh recollection, how many hours or days did it take to get enough guys to create what you guys felt was a substantial front line to secure the area?
SPEAKER_02Uh well w w we didn't. We we we were cut off. We were cut off from First Army. W we were up at Eupen, w which would be uh n north northeast corner. And uh we had control of Melbourne and all that there. But the Germans came right right in our control and cut us off from th those towns down there. Now I I th I think I talked about the Melbourne massacre before and uh this is unbelievable. We were cut off from First Army. W we're a corps under First Army. So i in order to uh get orders and everything, we were assigned to Field Marshal Montgomery's 21st Army Group. We were twelfth Army Group under Bradley. And uh we went to uh Fi Field Marshal Montgomery's uh and uh uh I saw him, he came came there and picked up cigarettes and stuff for his troop. He didn't smoke himself, but but he liked to be in command, so he was the one that's gonna give out cigarettes if he was gonna be cigarettes give it out.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. No better way to earn respect than some uh quality cigarettes and maybe a candy bar here and there if you can find it.
SPEAKER_02But but people will be listening to this now and they say, What did you do in uh the the British service? We w were part of the offensive w when uh the third army, Patton's Third Army, came up from that side, we put the squeeze on them from the north. And that's forced them back. That was the end of them right there. They they just dropped their w weapons and walked out. Left everything there, the tanks, the guns, the rifles, ammunition, and and walked out.
SPEAKER_01Now let me ask you that to back up a little bit because obviously one of the things the battle the bulge in the stone is known for is the extreme cold. And we all know that it gets colder at night than it does in day, and you grew up in Minnesota, so you know you're kinda tempered in cold steel, if you will. Do you think looking back at it, do you kind of see it as an advantage that you work night so that you could try to sleep in the day when it's just a smidge, a little bit warmer due to the sun?
SPEAKER_02I I think my w my life is planned from above, Donna.
SPEAKER_04Sure.
SPEAKER_02I I really am. I I it it's hard for me to believe that uh there's no one else I was in the service with still alive except me. How is that possible? In less than five months I'm gonna be ninety-eight years old.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm gonna wish you're happy now.
SPEAKER_02But mine is fair fairly stable. Yeah, absolutely. And uh my body is stable. Uh I've got a little infection in uh w w one one of my teeth that uh I'm gonna have to have uh taken care of. I got appointment now with the dentist. But but uh other than that, I don't know what aches or pains are. And me with eleven cents in me had a terrific stroke uh twenty s something years ago, twenty-seven probably.
SPEAKER_01But uh how are you guys how are you guys dealing with you know interaction with your family members and all that with the COVID going on out there in California?
SPEAKER_02Well uh I'm in a particular there again, I'm the luckiest man in the world. I I live with my two sons and and the their offspring. And now uh the their offspring is all uh got got homes of their own. I'm not only a a grandpa, a grandpa nine times, I'm a great grandpa eleven times, and uh one of my grandchildren uh one of my grandfather's children uh gave gave gave birth uh uh a year ago to a girl and it's pregnant again. So uh I I I um I'm uh I I don't know how to say it anymore. Great, great, great. But uh it it always comes on I I'm a grandpa. So so I'm known as Papa Jake. Even my own son calls me Papa Jake.
SPEAKER_01That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_02So uh it's easy for all. Uh I don't have to worry if I'm uh if I'm that one's great, great or just a great. They're all my family.
SPEAKER_01Have you ever really sat around and and took a moment to realize how much history you have witnessed in your life? Obviously, World War II. Television.
SPEAKER_02I've got a book coming out done.
SPEAKER_01Do you?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, but these stories that I'm telling you will be in that book.
SPEAKER_01Is there a working title for the book?
SPEAKER_02Uh yes, I've got a title for the book. The lucky luckiest man in the world, Jake Larson.
SPEAKER_01Because I'm I'm sitting here thinking, obviously, World War II, television, advent, Vietnam, Korean War, colored TV, computers, internet.
SPEAKER_02I have none of that.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm just saying you've witnessed it through throughout your life.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I've witnessed it. Oh, yeah. I used to be a television repairman.
SPEAKER_01Television repairman, the first African American president, and now COVID 19. Just the amount the the widespan of history that you've witnessed and participated in, it's just kind of got it's gotta be a little mind-boggling sometimes, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02I think Harrison was the president when I was born. But but but I remember Herbert Hoover and uh he he got in for uh chicken in every pot. And uh and then uh Roosevelt got in there and uh you couldn't pry him out with a crowbar. He he got in for four terms, which is very unusual that I lived through that. And uh President Roosevelt w when I I turned twenty one while I was overseas at the w uh during the war. I I got a chance to vote. And I voted for President Roosevelt for his fourth term. You won't find many people that have done that.
SPEAKER_01Isn't that the truth?
SPEAKER_02And I voted over over from overseas.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Talking about a mail-in ballot. That's a V mail ballot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's it's it's a crazy thing.
SPEAKER_01You know, a while back um when we were suffering through the recession and unemployment was through the roof, some people uh suggested maybe that we uh take a chapter from the good days from the forties and the thirties, and bring back the civilian conservation corps to help one do the jobs at the civilian concentration con uh civilian concent conversation, do what they did back then uh you know, building roads and um all the infrastructure stuff and provide not only provide work well that was the uh the the roads were built by the WPA.
SPEAKER_02Work now it's called WPA Works Project Administration. Uh I I lived through all those.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Those C C C caps. I I had an older brother that was 12 years older than me. He went to that. They paid Army wages $30 a month. Well, that's and the man, the work that they did, you couldn't hire that work done for three times that much.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So uh that was a bonanza.
SPEAKER_01Well, not only did it provide not only did it provide employment, but at the time it provided much needed food and and housing, but not only that, but since it was ran kind of loosely by a branch of the military, it provided a lot of uh structure and um people who needed it.
SPEAKER_02They became good soldiers too. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01And so it would be it would I don't know if it would work on today's scale. I mean, yes, providing the jobs and doing that type of work may um may work now, but definitely not the uh input and the military uh style structure that wouldn't fly nowadays, but it would be a good source to help get some people who have lost their jobs with what's going on to get back to work.
SPEAKER_02Well well, people won't realize w w what uh money was compared to now.
SPEAKER_03Sure.
SPEAKER_02Uh think of it. I was born in 1922. W when I when I started to go into town five, six years old with a younger brother alongside of me. And w we like to go to the five and ten store and just look at stuff. And we'd ask my dad for some money so we could go to the five and dime store. I am not making this up, so help me God. He gave us each a penny. And he says, Don't spend it all in one place now. And we travel off to the five and dime. And we looked at everything. Everything. Rubber bands were five cents for a big package of those rubber bands. That those rubber bands w we were making slingslots at home and we we tried to cut inner tubes into rubber bands so we can make. You cannot cut an ammo inner tube straight with a scissors. So uh here those rubber bands were five cents. I put a pack of those in my pocket. And when I got home with those rubber bands, we got the slingshots out on the table and and putting those rubber bands on. My mother came along and says, uh, where did you get the rubber bands? Oh, we got them at the dime store. How much did they cost? Whoa, wait a minute, we had two cents. I said, Well, I I I didn't pay for 'em. Nobody was looking, so I put 'em in my pocket. She says, put 'em up on the buffet, and next week when we go in, you are going to carry those back in and tell 'em you stole them. Worst year of my life. Worst week of my life.
SPEAKER_01Waiting anticipation.
SPEAKER_02They had a runner. It seemed like ten miles long to the cash register where the manager was. And uh I felt like crawling under that baby and getting up there. What a lesson. I I had a pretty wise mother.
SPEAKER_01Not only is that a wise lesson, that's kind of a great snapshot in comparison. Um, I think as years gone by nowadays, a mother would say, Hey, you don't take things that don't belong to you, but I don't know how many of them would go through the effort of driving back to the store to return a dollar item or something they may you know, chastise their child.
SPEAKER_02Five cents.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'll just I'll I'll suggest it for inflation because it's not the picket buy for five cents now. But my point being is uh the lesson that you learned, because once again you had to wait a week to anticipate not knowing what your manager's gonna say, not know what your parents are gonna say to you. So that that little thing of your mom making you return that item has probably served you so well throughout your life because it's it's one of the most important values and lessons in life that you don't take things, don't want to get it and if you don't have the money to get it, don't steal it, go out and earn the money and then go back. Buy it. And by the way, it's funny when you brought this up because I was thinking I have another podcast that's a general entertainment podcast, but my brother and I were talking about how when we were kids, uh, when we didn't have money for things, we would window shop, which I don't think kids do that nowadays. And we would go, for example, we were heavily into skateboarding at the time, and we didn't they were quite expensive and we didn't have the money. So we'd go to the skateboard shop and we would study every component that made up that skateboard and all the different brands and the different prices, and we would build a catalog in our head, okay. When I have the money, I could save up this money. And we would have everything about that particular item so that when we actually had the money, we would go to the store. And it became so important to us. And so instead of just going out and buying it and leaving and playing with it for an hour, when you spend months planning, learning, educating yourself, saving up the money, when you finally got that item, it meant so much more to you that you utilized it for a longer period of time. And something like skateboarding or surfing or biking or scuba diving, it becomes a lifestyle and not something you just tried for ten minutes and walked away from.
SPEAKER_02I never knew what uh toys were.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Never owned a bike. Uh uh w we we asked for a bike. And my dad said, Bicycle. That they cost five dollars. I can buy a car for that. You can buy a Model T car with good tires at that time for five dollars. And I'm not joking. My brother Neo bought it.
SPEAKER_01And you kind of hit on an another good point. Not only is he gotta pay the five dollars for the bike, but in four months, or if you run over a nail, you got upkeep. Now you gotta spend money on tires.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, tubes or whatever.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well well, I never had the luxury of owning a bike. And uh it's it's uh I paid for quite a few of them with my my kids. Uh and I I can ride a bike, but uh I am not comfortable on a bike. Th there's a difference i in uh riding a bike and comfort comfortable. I don't feel safe on a bike. And and some of these kids jump oh man my stomach goes right right out w when I see that happen.
SPEAKER_01Isn't it funny how things work? Here's a man who landed on D Day, was there through the Battle of the Bulge, but the the thought of riding a bike through traffic makes you a woozy.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So w yeah where did the where did the war end for you? Were you there through the duration? Did you get the home? Did you get points?
SPEAKER_02The the the war war ended at the battle of the bulge. For me. December 31st. General Geroll authorized 45 days leave to all those that had enough points. Well, uh I uh pushed everybody else. I had 127 points, where other guys had a barely a hundred. Because the point system. That's the way it was. How long you were in the service, how long you were overseas, and uh that's that's how that was all figured. I I I don't ask me to do it now. I can't, but I do know I had 127 points, and uh I was one of the first ones chosen to to go back home. I I was the only one out of G three.
SPEAKER_01And uh Did they send you back thro that did they send you back through England first or did you leave straightly f straight from France?
SPEAKER_02I left left from France. They sent me to La Harb, France. And this is an interesting story all in its own. Your next interview should be on that b because that is one of the most interesting stories.
SPEAKER_01Something happened on that ride home?
SPEAKER_02Uh I I yes. Well, it happened before we even went home. That was La Havre was a German submarine place.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I see where you're going with that. So we'll leave the audience wanting more.
SPEAKER_02They had these quartz at homes there. I came in there at 11 o'clock at night. This is just a preview of what you're gonna hear.
SPEAKER_04Sure.
SPEAKER_02I came in at 11 o'clock at night, and they said you're in bed number one, you're right there, right inside. There's a light switch inside the door. So I came inside that door with my past and something and uh I'm ready to go home, you know. Drop that stuff down and uh go to my bed. Rip back the cover. Shut that light off. And uh the next jump out doors off and it felt like something was jumping on my chest. Little tikky, tiki, tiki thing jumping on my chest. I got up, turned the light on, and and uh I was loaded with bleed! Oh and then those guys were hollering, something gonna be a water! I said I was putting my clothes on. They said, Where are you going? I said, I'll I want to find a supply sergeant and get some plate powder. Oh, he won't get up at this time of the night. I said, he'll get up, all right. And uh now we're gonna leave off there because uh uh there's no stopping me now, I see. But uh we'll we'll leave off till the next time. And uh I told you this is kind of an interesting story, but uh, I'm all for it.
SPEAKER_01That's what we look for here. We look for uh interesting stories and continuing to tell your tale. Papa Jake, thank you so much for joining us for another episode, and I will get a hold of you behind the scenes here shortly, and we'll set up your third follow-up episode. So casually take them into interview number three, the final interview with Jake Larson, the World War II vet. Uh, we're gonna get a little bit more into um his uh um combat career and then talk about what happened on his longboat ride home and what it was like to come back to the United States in 1945 after being away for three years. So stick around, that's coming up next. Uh I think we got all promotions on the way, just one more thing. This episode of the What's Up Stop Up Podcast, as well as all the other podcasts here at the Digital Fortin Network, is brought to you by our friends at computers. At computers that's been providing IT solutions for all of Self-Sorts 2004. Uh, software for they can help you remotely as long as you have internet obviously. So give them a call at 239-2831120. That's 239-2831120, or head over to at typecoral.com. And not only can they log in their computer and help you have it, they can help you out with two form authentication. So that if you're trying to log into your work from home or you have employees logged in from home because of COVID, you want that to be done securely. Uh obviously, with all the work going on from home, there's more security breaches out there. So they can help you out with internet security. Uh and most importantly, online backups, backup that data. So if your hard drive crashes or unfortunately you get encryption, uh all your data will be safe. So give them a call 239-283120 or head over to act hyphencapecurl.com. Jeff, as always, where can people find you? Uh Jeff Cupset on Facebook or at Jeff Copset on Instagram. Thank you so much, friend. Uh and uh everybody stick around and coming up, it's Jake Larson. And joining us from the phone from sunny California once again, Mr. Jake Larson. Jake, I feel like you and I are becoming good old friends at this point. This is your third interview with us. And you were just telling me before you came on that your life is crazy, you just don't get it. Are you getting requests to do a lot of interviews?
SPEAKER_02Is your you know Oh yeah, oh yeah. Yeah. I I I I went to uh trade school after I got out of the service in in 1945. I I I went to d Danwiddy in uh Minneapolis. I I took electricity and air conditioning, motor rewinding, uh yeah, yeah. God there wasn't anything I couldn't do.
SPEAKER_01And uh did you ever imagine you'd become a spokesperson for your generation at some point in your life? Do a lot of public speaking. Sure. So the last time we were together, we just wrapped up the Battle of the Bulge and you were telling me that you had something interestingly happen to you on your long travel home, but you said it's a quite an in-depth story that we should schedule a third interview, which we were obviously happy to do. Um so maybe we should pick up right around the time of the ending of the war for you. Um I guess we'll start nice and clean. Where did you get your notification that uh the war was over for you and it was time to go home?
SPEAKER_02Mine is so different from anybody else. Uh I ran G three at night, the night shift.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02On D Day we we gotta go back to D Day.
SPEAKER_03Sure.
SPEAKER_02And uh the the whole thing the whole army was r running on adrenaline at that time. We loaded on the fourth expecting to uh r uh i invade Europe on the fifth. Well, that storm came in and uh uh the the it was postponed till the sixth.
SPEAKER_01What does that do for morale? I mean, here you guys have been training for years, some of these guys have been training for three years. You uh take that long boat ride across seas, you're doing more training, the orders come down, okay we're moving. At some point you have to find a little quiet time. I'm sure you basically have to uh accept uh fate Okay, here we go, tomorrow's the big day. Uh like you say you're running off adrenaline, coffee, and cigarettes. And then all of a sudden a thing gets scrubbed. Does that how does one rebuild morale after that? I mean, because now you gotta go through it all over again. A second night of, oh boy, tomorrow's the day. What does that do to a guy?
SPEAKER_02How would you feel uh uh uh i in front of all your buddies there? Uh everybody is putting on a front. You understand? And w w when you put on a front, uh i you you boast everybody so so we're uh we're all in it together. There was no down. No down. W we wanted it done and over with. We we wanted to get it over. We wanted to go home.
SPEAKER_03Sure.
SPEAKER_02Uh w we we were I I was overseas for for uh t two and a half years there, you know. And uh and w we knew we had the invasion in in our plans, uh but we wanted to get it over with. Uh w the polarity of that thing and they kept bringing supplies from the United States. Uh uh I thought England would sink from from the amount of supplies they have uh you can cannot imagine the the millions of things that came over. Uh all kinds of guns, uh tanks, uh, airplanes. Uh uh I don't know how they got them all made. Uh trucks loaded with trucks. It's just uh uh uh unbelievable supplies.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think the logistics officers are some of the biggest unsung heroes of the war. I mean, just the logistics alone. Let's forget the fact that you guys are going to war and and all the things are gonna come. Just the idea of coming out of a depression era um building all this new equipment, but getting it overseas, via ships, via anything that floats with a motor. And uh just that in itself, getting it done with the least amount of confusion. I'm sure that things got misplaced and things didn't land exactly where they're supposed to, but even still the amount of effort to go into that and then to have the V email separated and that being getting priority as well. Just the logistics of the war and the what those logistics officers were able to do is just still to this day AD.
SPEAKER_02It's unbelievable to people that haven't seen anything like that. Uh and uh w we we were right in on the on the whole doggone thing. It's how how did they m ever manufacture all those gigantic planes? Uh uh those B-17s that you you don't put those together just snap your fingers.
SPEAKER_01Not at all. And you know, I have the the um privilege up in Tampa Bay about two hours from me, they have the USS American Victory Liberty ship. And I've had the privilege to um uh participate in events on that ship while it's out on Tampa Bay. And when you're standing down there on the dock in front of that thing, uh it blows your mind of the size of that, but then to realize that that's nothing in comparison to the other ships, and to think that you and your uh your uh friends and the people of your generation are standing on one of these ships and you look out uh and you're just surrounded by miles and miles and miles material, yeah. The world will never see that again in its lifetime, and it's just it's just photos of the day just don't even give it even remotely, you know, the gravitas of what that situation was.
SPEAKER_02W well that i it is and uh will be the largest uh uh uh enterprise ever done in the world. D Day nineteen nineteen forty-four. January sixth, or j j June sixth, nineteen forty-four. There will never be anything. Seven thousand ships participated. Seven thousand I I don't know if I told you this, but uh I worked on uh uh on the on uh uh the the D Day invasion for uh Omaha Beach. The ships that that we were assigned and uh i each each one had a different number of of people on. I typed every one of those guys' name. And for for the work I did on that there, uh I got the bronze star.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I can imagine. I mean, you know, the young kids nowadays typing on a computer keyboard is nothing. Well, you're talking about a spring-loaded heavy keyed stamping s uh typewriter. What was and and that wasn't a common uh that wasn't a common skill for people back then unless you were in, you know, the secretary pool. Do you remember what your words per minute was back then?
SPEAKER_02What what?
SPEAKER_01Your words per minute? How fast you could type?
SPEAKER_02I could type 50 words a minute. And and that that's about what those type type words were good for.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02They weren't made for speed, they were just m yeah, y you did we did a lot of stencils. Yeah with those that's a lot of ribbon, see? Yeah, cut cut the stencil. That that's a uh a kind of a paraffin co coated thing and you you just uh those stencils were used on mimeograph. I don't you probably don't remember that stuff. But but all all that stuff was printed with mimeograph. And uh so I used to cut all those stencils. And and i if you made a mistake you had a start all over. Yeah, i i i it's it's quite thin. But but uh I was blessed making no mistakes. I didn't even have anybody checking my stuff. Uh it's uh to think of it now, I I I I don't know how we written to it. Just the Fulbright Colonel and I in there w w working on that.
SPEAKER_01Uh I'm sure you would have the echoes of the reverberation of those letter on the on the typewriter of those letter heads s slapping that ribbon. That just had the you you're probably trying to well, sleep at night or during the early hours, whichever time you actually had the chance to lay your head down, you're you probably just had the sound of that typewriter reverberating through your head at all hours. I couldn't imagine.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. And then uh when we were in uh the barrels, uh I r I ran one of those uh uh uh uh electric uh battery operator typewriters. The the that's uh telepretty operator. You're connected by land line uh to your divisions that was under you or or an anybody that they they had one just like it. If I started setup, it would operate fitters. So I could send messages over to them. Of course everything was sent in code, you you sent messages five letters at a time. Think of it, five letters at a time. X D R F or something like that, and uh and then another space and another five letter and you had to type them uh at forty-five words a minute you without slowing down or stopping.
SPEAKER_01And so not only are you typing forty-five words a minute, but you're not even typing your natural English, you're typing code. I can only imagine how long the training had to take for that.
SPEAKER_02That uh it is something you j you just can't just sit down and do.
SPEAKER_03Sure.
SPEAKER_02A uh a couple weeks uh to to to to uh r really but but I was proficient on the typewriter too.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So before I diverted the conversation, you were talking about you know, we went back to D-Day and we were kind of talking about how you're prepared to go on June 5th, but because of the storms it got moved today. And so let's pick up there.
SPEAKER_02All right. Uh we knew we were gonna go in the morning, so uh I was on that command ship too. And uh well, I lost the name of it right there in my mind.
SPEAKER_01No, no worries.
SPEAKER_02Anyway, the uh I Eisenhower was on there, Bradley, and my my my fullbird colonel who was G three, he he was in charge of all the hobby for his operations. Colonel John G. Hill. So uh I w was the operation sergeant. That you you don't find many operations sergeants in the service. And uh I happen to be one of those birds. And uh I had to go in w with the first division. Because uh uh I was supposed to pick out the the command post. Well hell all hell broke loose. We could we could not go at our regular time. I was supposed to go in there at at eight eight eight o'clock or something, and and here we went around in circles w waiting f w waiting to get the word to to uh land. The Germans were putting up a resistance. They wouldn't let anybody get up o over the cliff.
SPEAKER_04So uh i i it uh it was probably uh oh oh pretty close to ten o'clock before we got the com thing that we were going.
SPEAKER_02And when we did g get in, there was hardly anybody moving. And uh they had they they they had shipped in some Bangalore torpedoes and they opened up this ravine w a trench like water water w c came now and that's where we were supposed to g get get up over that cliff. It was loaded with barbed wire and stuff, and they shoved these b Bangalore torpedoes up in there and and screwed them together. And and t two of the guys that were doing that at the time w w were uh killed right there. Germans shot 'em. And uh God, I remember that just like yesterday. And uh co of course if somebody goes down, there's always somebody to to to uh do the work again, another takes your place. That's the thing about the army and the infantry and all that stuff. It's uh th there's always somebody there.
SPEAKER_04Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02I I don't know how else to put it, but uh w when you're in the service like that, you become dispensable. There's always somebody can take your place. And uh th when when they finally got those Bangalore potatoes in there and set 'em off, my my god that that cleared all that barbed wire out of there. That's when the Germans cleared out from the fr uh t the back of their armament uh and were where they were shooting at us. They have no protection from the rear. They're wide open. So so they they cleared out. It's just like open season there for space.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, you know, that that bob wire is kind of their last line of defense, you know. They didn't expect you know you guys to make it that far in. You made it past the hedgehogs, you made it past all the MG-42s, MD-39s, and then you made it up past the bob wire. And as we all know, because Hitler sent most of his men and tanks up north because he thought Patton's army was coming up north.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, thank God for that. And that that's the reason I'm sitting here talking to you right now. Uh think think of it. Uh I w wa was in infantry. I was started off in infantry. I I got the headquarters company. I I got transferred over in North Island, I got transferred into G three. Uh uh how many people do you think ever get out of the infantry and into uh uh core headquarters and then worked on that stuff? I I got the Bronze Star for what I did on the and think of it. I at ninety-seven years old right now, I'll be ninety-eight in December, December twentieth, I'm turning ninety-eight. I am the only one alive in all the units that I was in over there. Think and here I am. Now ninety-seven years old. I don't have an ache or a pain in my body.
SPEAKER_01That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_02How is that possible? How is that possible?
SPEAKER_01You did something right.
SPEAKER_02Uh no, somebody is helping me up from above. Uh uh I know it. Uh I know it. This is too un too unreal. And uh I I t I tell some of these stories on TikTok. So uh it's amazing uh a little old farm boy from Hope, Minnesota has gone through this here. Why did this happen to me? Why am I still here? Well, somebody wants me here to tell my story. And uh I I think we'll have my book out this year, yep.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's what you were saying the last time you were on. You you guys still have a working title for that, or do you have you hammered out a uh Oh, I got a title for it.
SPEAKER_02Yes, the luckiest man in the world. Nobody else has got that title. No one.
SPEAKER_01I I was having a thought when you were talking when we were discussing about how much that D Day relied on the misinformation that was done through intelligence and did it everyone. And through the the participation of the French participants to put out false information to make it look more realistic. So much of that relied on that false information. Whatever after that information came out, like wow, I never realized how fatal that operation was that if they didn't believe in this ruse, that you know the intelligence was playing that it would have gone completely different.
SPEAKER_02Except that I'm uh I I'm alive. I uh I I got out of this alive. Uh I don't give I didn't give any thought. I I had to have some somebody interview me before I even brought anything up. We did not talk about the war.
SPEAKER_01Sure, because everybody was there. There's nothing to talk about.
SPEAKER_02Everybody was there, yes. You ni never talked about the war. I w was never congratulated. Hey, thank you for your service. Uh until uh uh I I told people about no, this is this was before the landing at Flapton Sands, the Operation Tiger. I I told them about that b because w we had kept that inside of us for for forty years. W we we weren't supposed to talk about uh under penalty of court martial. We we were banned but it opened up, the British opened it up uh and so I talked about it.
SPEAKER_03Sure.
SPEAKER_02That's the first thing I talked about uh about my service over there. And to think. I I was in one of those ships that were were uh t targeted. They they sank two of those landing ship tanks there, those LSTs, uh, right alongside of me. And they shot the hell out of the top of ours uh so that w w we couldn't get any fresh air, and those diesel engines were pretty dirty at the time and there was four hundred of us laying on the floor vomiting. We uh we were diesel gassed.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02See, this is something you you you'd like to tell somebody, man, th it it wasn't just fun, you know. W we we we we were worried too. And how how we ever got back out of that there, and then that colonel come out and and swearing us all the secrecy? Otherwise we'd be court-martialed. Uh uh That makes you think.
SPEAKER_01Well, absolutely. So just to get us a little back on track here, um you said in order to talk about the travel homes and what happened to you, we had to go back to D-Day briefly. Um how does how do we make that leap from D-Day back to your travels home and the craziness that happened on that journey home?
SPEAKER_02Well yeah, it it's I was one of the first t to to get a forty-five-day leave after the Battle of the Bulge. Uh I I was in on a short of that. Because I I worked at night and that's when it started.
SPEAKER_03Sure.
SPEAKER_02At at two o'clock in the morning, uh on December sixteenth, that's when the Germans dropped parachute parachuters. Uh there was between eight and nine hundred parachuters dropped. And uh I can only give you the p position on the map. It was it was precision on the map was uh th th six. I've been accused uh uh of of making that up because th they said that they'd never heard about anybody. This was a lieutenant colonel from the Vietnam War who who's a historian, and he says did you make this up? Because uh I I've I've never heard of anybody men mentioning paratroopers. By golly, uh it that that uh r really bugged me. But but Ridgway General Ridgway, the head of the eighty second airborne, wrote a book. And in that book he wrote about those eight eight to nine hundred paratroopers that landed down there. So man, i it it's just like I'm getting confirmation from above. You understand there's a lot of this stuff that's uh not confirmed, but but i uh i I got confirmation on that, see. And I woke up Colonel Hill and I woke up General Joe at that time. And uh they pulled an alert. And that alert saved quite a few of uh uh our men on the line. Uh I alerted the first uh first division and and the twenty-ninth division, they were on the line. And uh then we alerted first army and uh here's a weird thing. They they they came in below Eupin by uh God I'm run I'm running out of the gas. No worries.
SPEAKER_01I was just looking. Yeah, it looks like uh the book was called Soldiers, the memoirs of Matthew B. Ridgway came out in nineteen fifty-six on Harper Brothers first edition, January 1st, 1956. So you had to wait almost uh nine years to get any sort of confirmation for what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes, yes. I was telling that story from my own experience, and people were thinking I was making it up.
SPEAKER_01Well, at least you got your you know your vindication after all those years, and and finally some hard truth came out.
SPEAKER_02I've got my life here. My God, uh think of it. No one else alive right now that you uh I was even over there with. There must be something about my stories that that that rings true. It's hard to remember lies.
SPEAKER_03Sure.
SPEAKER_02And i i if you do remember them, you have to remember exactly what it is.
SPEAKER_01Well, and more often than not, when people are telling the truth about a story, you can tell the truth based on the detail. Um a lot of times when people are making up or lines. You know, the details aren't really that are cracked down. So and a lot of times when the real stories come out, they they're not as glamorous, they're not as romanticized as the made up ones. A lot of times, you know, when it's not on a story and it's it's aims. Matter of fact, and it's aims less than you know exciting or amazing, then it tends to be the truth because they're not trying to embellish it and make it more than it actually was.
SPEAKER_02Melody. Melody, the Melbourne massacre, my god, yes. That's that's where that Piper Colonel or or General I think he was a colonel leading those tanks. And they had the big ones. And those were the SS division that came through Melbourne. They had captured uh about uh a hundred engineers or uh ninety or something like that, and they were taken prisoners. So they lined them up in the ditch with their hands over their head. Snowing. It was snowing. And as the tanks drove by th those people lined up giving themselves up, they shot 'em with those machine guns, thirty caliber machine guns. They they called that the Melbourne Massacre. Then had terrific frost. And when when we w ha had troops go in there and pick up those dead. Those guys w w were sprawled in every position like spiders. W w what what a sad thing to see your buddies fighting for the same thing you are and g giving their life up w with their hands in the air. That's a hard thing to take.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, 'cause obviously when when you find them with their you know, in that position that just goes to show that they weren't putting up a fight. It was just a waste. It was a massacre, as the name implied. There was no no even effort to acknowledge that Geneva convention. It was straight up war crime.
SPEAKER_02But but but the uh uh what was life to Hitler?
SPEAKER_01A means to an end nothing.
SPEAKER_02The only thing he was trying to do was get his way. He kicked God out the out the door.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm. So And so it's two AM you just got your forty-eight hour leave.
SPEAKER_02And um Forty 46 hours after the battle of the bulls, I I got a forty-five day leave to go back to the States. After three years over there, well nearly t nearly three years, I think it was a month short there, but but uh th that's close enough to three years for me.
SPEAKER_04Sure.
SPEAKER_02But uh I I had a hundred and twenty-seven points and that that's w w when uh I I I had the mo most of anybody there, so uh I got uh in on the forty-five days. Now now here strange things happened to me. I I got got on a uh train there and uh went down to uh to front. La Harve. La Havre, France That was a submarine station there, German submarines. They had Quonsets that that they housed the things there. I came in at eleven o'clock at night and it was dark at t to to uh this Quonset and they said take the first bed. I had the uh underwear on so I shipped my out outer clothes off and crawled in bed, shut the light off. Everybody was shut the bed light off, shut the light off. You know, so I got in bed and I was exhausted and uh man, I was just about to sleep, and and something was moving on my chest like it was m m jumping up and down. I got up, turned the light on, and and looked uh under my underwear. I was full of fleas.
SPEAKER_01Oh, jeez.
SPEAKER_02Wow, oh my god, and then people hollering, hey, shut the damn light off, shut the light. I I said, Where where's the supply sergeant's tent? And they said, get back in bed, he won't get up. He'll get up, I says. I dressed, went down to the supply sergeant's tent, and of course he's sleeping.
SPEAKER_03Sure.
SPEAKER_02They always sleep in their tent. They don't trust anybody to to to break in there, so they always sleep there. So I pounded on that screen door. He said, What the hell are you doing? Get out of here. Go up. I says, I need some flea powder. Get out of here, I'll give it for you in the morning. I said, You go back to sleep. I'm gonna find the commanding officer of this place and see what he's got to say about, hey, don't I'll get up, I'll get you your flea powder. So I got the flea powder, and then after I powdered myself and my bed and everything, then these other guys say, Hey, can can we borrow that?
SPEAKER_03Nope.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. Other guys hollering, shut the light off. So uh bye guy got got some sleep.
SPEAKER_01So prior to that, you worked D3 at night, you were in the battle of the bulge, it's super cold, so you finally get a 45-day leave, and here's your first opportunity to get a night's sleep where you're not working, have a bed instead of a cot or a foxhole depending on where you were previously sleeping. And you came in and enjoy your first night in a in a bed uh fleeting.
SPEAKER_02Think of it. W we go from town to town. Never had lice or fleas or anything. And here you come to some place that's operated by the Americans. They get they took over the from from the Germans there. And they they didn't take care of the flea part problem. I couldn't have been the first one to have it.
SPEAKER_03Sure.
SPEAKER_02That is kind of disgusting, you know, when you come there to to an American place run by Americans and ha have that happen. So uh it it took a while, but then a Liberty s uh about two days a Liberty ship came down and uh uh by golly, I I I volunteered for to be the mess sergeant on there. Oh all I did was make uh ice cream and coffee. But but uh b before that happened that I'm there and there's wounded from the Battle of the Bulls being put on that ship and they're loading it up and and and and we haul two roads for sure back to England uh of wounded. This also uh see, this isn't off of my forty-five days, my forty-five days start after I get to Fort Snelling in Minnesota.
SPEAKER_01Really? So it doesn't start when you leave your assigned post, it actually starts when your feet get on American soil.
SPEAKER_02It took me fifty one days to get to Minnesota. Wow. Fifty-one days from the Battle of the Balls.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like when it was all said and done, you're looking down the barrel of a hundred day leave.
SPEAKER_02I'm just enjoying life on that liberty ship. Uh of course, uh a submarine or anything could could pick me up and everything. Who gave a damn about a submarine at this time? You were going home. But uh what what and a strange thing happened when I got to Fort Snelling. I I I told you about uh having two cousins and w we went into war together in uh f February 10th. We were put into federal service and was sent down to Camp Claiborne. They they stayed in Company F. My my my cousin Oli that then went in on North Africa, and then went in on Sicily, and then went into Italy.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_02And he got a leave from there.
SPEAKER_01So he he was basically there for the whole Mediterranean campaign.
SPEAKER_02I I got my leave from Belgium and then came came back across the Atlantic. In the morning I I was sitting by a pool waiting for for him to call my name out. Ole came and he says, Jake, is that you? Here we met at Fort Snelly three three years after we were in the service and parted. Now, how in the world is that possible? How is that possible?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, not only end up at the same place on the same day, but to essentially be uh you know, get leave or point it out at the same exact time. And I just said your your boat ride home took forty-one days, so for all that to uh come to fruition. Fifty-one days, for all that to come to fruition and then you land at the same camp uh roughly the same time.
SPEAKER_02That's that's amazing. It's crazy. It's l it's like I make this stuff up. But he he got discharged the same day I did. But and and that was February thirteenth. Uh no, no, April thirteenth. April thirteenth, nineteen forty-five. We were the fur ones of the first twelve discharged before the war was over, overseas. That was a day after President Roosevelt died. He died on the on the twelfth. Uh I got discharged on the thirteenth.
SPEAKER_01What was it like to get back to the States after three years? I mean, you went in. The country was still in the middle of a depression.
SPEAKER_02It it it was unbelievable. Full rationing, ever everything was rationed. You had to have a ration stamp to buy gasoline. You you had a ration stamp for tires or anything.
SPEAKER_01Flour food. I actually have a ration stamp book here in the studio.
SPEAKER_02Uh uh all all the the fat. And uh that I I found out they they use that to make glycerin for for ammunition and stuff. I I I never knew they did that stuff. But but uh uh yes uh for for uh I never got any recognition for f for for uh my service b because everybody that was in the service got out and and no one talked about their service because everybody was in different parts of the service and and and it uh it it'd be like sitting down talking to yourself.
SPEAKER_01And I would imagine at a certain point you guys were just at the at the place where you just you're kind of over it. You want to move on their lives. Why talk about something that you had to live through for three years? Yeah. That'd be like uh talking about COVID-19 for the next ten years. No, we're over it. We want to move on.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. You hit it right on the nose. It was uh talking about the service was overkill for us. We wanted to forget about that stuff. We we wanted to to be nor normal.
SPEAKER_01Now, you're from a small town before the war when you left, I'm sure you know you guys were just coming out of uh the Great Depression are still in it. Had your town. Had your town gained um financially or did it blow up at all? Did was there any uh more manufacturing going on in your town or did it look the same when you got home?
SPEAKER_02It shrank.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_02It really shrank. Yeah, and I'm not joking. Yes. T two stores, uh uh a bank, uh pool, uh a garage, uh a creamery. Creamery was the thing that bound the town together because uh all the farmers milked their own cows and uh brought the cream into the creamery. Here's an interesting little thing. In Minnesota of if every little town had its own creamery and farmers used to take the crib. The only creamery left in Minnesota that still operates is from Hope, Minnesota. That's where I was raised. Hope H O P E Minnesota and it's the only creamery still operating.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's some longevity. Especially nowadays with things being shipped in from all over the world.
SPEAKER_02They ship most of their their their cream uh cook butter to uh New York City. It's uh about the only number one butter that's uh still made i in this in in this little l little l little town and i i it's uh a a hundred people. I don't think you even call 'em a town.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And and the fact that most of the you know, the the young men who were sixteen to nineteen were probably off overseas and that, you know, made it a lot harder to farm and and get the logistics done looking.
SPEAKER_02And they left they left the farm after after they were in the service. See see I went to uh I I went to uh uh uh trade school for two years. And uh I I can I could fix anything. Anything. If if it if anything was fixable, I could fix it.
SPEAKER_01So that's what you did when you came back from the war, you went to trade school?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yep.
SPEAKER_01Did you did you utilize the GI Bill for your first home and going to school or did you just Oh no, I never used it used it for anything.
SPEAKER_02The the only thing I got out of the GI Bill w was uh helping me through trade school. Yeah I I got sixty uh I got uh my wife and I got sixty dollars a month.
SPEAKER_01Where'd you meet your wife at?
SPEAKER_02That's the most unusual thing in the world how I met my wife.
SPEAKER_01Well, that seems pretty usual for you. Everything everything at at this point coming home across the seas, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you you you you gotta read my book. Yeah, but but but but I'll t I'll tell you anyway.
SPEAKER_04Sure.
SPEAKER_02That's just part of my book. I've uh I've I I bought an Argus seat seat two thirty-five millimeter camera. With with that twelve dollars I got every three months, it it it took took me two two years to pay for that dog thing because I had to have a couple dollars a mile. Sure. It cost that camera cost f over thirty-five dollars. It was a box camera. Oh man. I I I just fell in love with the thirty-five millimeter ones and uh the this is uh a three-two lens, you know, and uh a viewfinder and a cow hide case. Man, uh I I was a dog in town, I'll tell you.
SPEAKER_01Well what people don't realize too is we're all nowadays, we're all dispoint too. People don't understand what a aperture is, an F-stop time, what a light meter is, and and back then it photography was a true skill and art. You had to know how to use your light meter. That's your F-stop, set your aperture, and all that stuff. Did you get into the development of film at all?
SPEAKER_02Uh oh, I did, yeah. I I ordered film uh uh rolls of film from Hollywood. You can get it cheaper than it's black and white. I I loaded my own canisters uh uh under uh the tarp, you know, or something, see?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I took four years of black and white photography in high school. I think um this was in the nineties. My record, I think, from taking the film out of the canister and loading it into the developer tank was about 30 seconds. I got pretty proficient with it.
SPEAKER_02I see what I mean, yeah, yeah. You you you get y you get some so so so anyway when I got to North Ireland I I I uh I got to m uh uh t talking to uh a medical major there, Major Joseph Ridgway, and uh he had an eight millimeter m movie camera, not a wind up at a spring wind, you know. And he says, uh Jake here, as long as you're in photography, he says, i i if you go on furrow any place, uh come and pick up my camera and take it along and and take take pictures of that. I said, sure. By golly, I I got a furlough to Edinburgh, Scotland. I was in North Ireland. So uh we have to go by ship to get in England and and it's a roundabout way, but uh I I went to North Ireland uh Edinburgh and uh God that was a great thing. So uh I I took a bunch of pictures up there for him on his movie camera. I took some w with my just with my st w one shot camera. So uh uh c came back and gave him his camera back. He he took and s sent that roll of film to his wife. W well a month went by and there was on Sunday I was walking around the camera. I'd just taken some pictures of some some swans. Well, we don't have swans in Minnesota. Never saw a swan. And here's a pair of swans and and that they're so elegant for a thing. So I took a picture of that with with my camera. And uh here drives Major Ridgway up in his Jeep. And uh he says, I got a bone to pick with you, Jay. I says, What kind of a bone have you got to pick with me? He says, The last time you used my camera and and took pictures for me, he says, Who are those girls? I said, What are you talking about, man? He says, When you went to Edinburgh, I I sent that raw film to my wife, and she wants to know who those girls are you took pictures of.
SPEAKER_03Whoops.
SPEAKER_02Oh, my God, oh I forgot about that. They had a convention up there, and I said, My God, you never see this many good looking girls. So I took picture movies of that. He says, Man, he says I says, You can't send that raw film to your wife, get it developed here, and then then you can cut that out. Nevertheless And I said, So I sat in his Jeep and handed him that RC2 camera of mine, and he took a picture of me in his Jeep. I didn't have a Jeep. I never was in a Jeep, just to ride in one being going someplace, but but I never had one and never sat behind the wheel before. So when I developed that up, I thought, my God, that picture is great. I can't believe it. So the the picture of the swans and the picture of that me in that jeep, I I sent to my mother. My dad saw that and he put them in the photo news in Owatana. Now I I I didn't know the end of this until I got out of the war and met my wife. And uh God, we got married while I was going to Dunwoody. And after Dunwoody I I had a service station in nine nineteen forty eight and she was pregnant with our first child. And uh I I came home at noon to get something to eat and I went in to wash on w wash up and she had her wallet out. She was changing wallets. And on the on the top of that desk there, there was that picture from the me in that Jeep taken in North Ireland when uh I was nineteen years old. Hey, where did you get the she says I I was a sophomore in high school with when that picture came out. I cut it out and put it in my wallet. I said, You put it in your wallet. What you put it she says, my girlfriend says, Who is that guy? And my wife said, so help me God, this is the truth. She says, that's the guy I'm going to marry.
SPEAKER_01Wow. All those years later she still had it.
SPEAKER_02All those years later, yeah. I I'll tell you our marriage uh I would not be here today i if it weren't for my old wife. We had a place. We we owned our own I I was sixty-seven years old w when uh she said father, father, when she called me father, uh anything she wanted she got. Father, I found my dream house. The dream house was this house that we're living in that I'm living in right now, my two sons and I each have got their own place here. They they're they're neighbors to me here. Upstairs and and right alongside of me. And we've we've we raised their children. Your children are growing up now. But but I have a stroke here and if it weren't for my oldest son come coming and and and getting me in the morning when my alarm went off and I I couldn't answer. He heard it and got down and and got me to the hospital. I I I have a little uh atrophy in my in the palm of my m uh left hand and I I kind of dragged my left foot, but it doesn't seem to have uh affected my mentality any. Maybe it has, but uh but that that that was twenty-seven years ago.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_02Seventeen years ago, uh I w wa was back in Minnesota for seven weeks and that was the last Fifth Corps reunion, you know Claire, Wisconsin. I I drove up to that, I was up in Nissawa, Minnesota. I I I drove all over there and c came back after seven weeks, flew back by myself, and uh uh I I was going through the through the mail at eight o'clock at night and uh my older son Kirk came down and uh he just walked through the refrigerator and looked in there. Hell, there was nothing in there because I'd been gone for seven months. Weeks. So he started to go upstairs and I says, Kurt, uh uh, w w wait a minute. He says, You got a problem? I says, Yeah, I I'm getting dizzy. He says, I'll I'll be right down. He went up and got his keys, took me down to Kaiser in Walnut Creek, that's about fifteen miles a away from here. And uh they started doctors started checking me and I started feeling pretty good again.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And uh ten o'clock at night, my whole family was down there, and my daughter said, Dad, they want to keep you overnight. And uh I said, What was the reason for that? Well, I think they want to put you on a treadmill in the morning. So they they hooked me up and put me to sleep. I went to sleep. I woke up the next day twenty-five miles away in another hospital. I had six, I had I had cardiac arrest and sent up to that other hospital, and they put six stents in me and said, You have to have five more.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_02I'm so I was shipped over to San Francisco to Kaiser and had five more stents. I got eleven stents in my chest. Eleven. Peep, I've been called a liar by the doctors.
SPEAKER_01My father has seven, so I I can believe you're eleven.
SPEAKER_02It's crazy. But I've got the best circulation of anybody in the world. Maybe that's the reason I've I I don't have extra pains.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're borderlining on an artificial heart at this point. You got eleven of them. Fun fact about Kaiser Permanente. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I came through it.
SPEAKER_01And I'm so happy you did. And just for a fun fact for our listeners about Kaiser Permanente, the hospital. As you know, back during the war, Kaiser was actually a ship and tech building company.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. Yes.
SPEAKER_01They had so many employees working so many hours a day that they had to basically have an on-site hospital. And so they got so God mentioned that.
SPEAKER_02That's because I own my life. I'm here because of Kaiser. Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_01So they went from building tanks and liberty ships, and then after the war, they just focused on medicine, and that's where Kaiser Permanente came from. It started off as an on say hospital for a shipbuilding company, and now they're one of the best hospitals in the country.
SPEAKER_02They are top-notch. They ranked number five in everything.
SPEAKER_01And thank you for all that you do. And thank you for coming on the show. And um you said roughly around December, maybe January, your book's coming out, the luckiest man alive, correct?
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_01And obviously when that comes out, we will remind our audience.
SPEAKER_02Luckiest man in the world, uh Luckiest Man in the world.
SPEAKER_01Well, I will be one of the first ones to buy a copy, and then I will send it out to you so you can autograph it for me. Jake Larson, thank you so much. You guys can find him on TikTok at Storytime's with Papa Jake. And simply just Google Jake Larson. And you know, in interview one and interview two, I think you mentioned a fact that when you went back over to um Normandy, you're doing all these press junkets with all these different stations. Just Google it, people. It's there. Just Google Jake Larson. All these next videos that he was talking about when he was back over to Normandy for the anniversary, they'll all come up. So it's all out there. And as always, head over to WTSPworldwar 2.com, find the page for this episode, and we will include some photographs that Jake sent to me last time, as well as links to all the pertinent information. Jake, thank you so much for spending so many hours with us and sharing your story not only with TikTok, but with my audience and the rest of the world. And I hope everything continues to go well with you, and um things just keep on going on, sir.
SPEAKER_02Well, uh it's keeping on going on. And uh I I think somebody upstairs w wants this told. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here.
SPEAKER_01And I greatly appreciate it, and I'm gonna do my part to get that message out, sir.
SPEAKER_02Thanks, thanks, thanks, buddy. Uh, and uh yeah, it's always a pleasure talking to you. Always.
SPEAKER_01It's always a pleasure talking to you, and a little secret, keep an eye on your mailbox, sir. I sent you something uh about a few days back. Actually, I ordered you something a few days back. It'll probably take another few days before it's uh made up and sent out, but I I sent you a little something to thank you for coming on the show.
SPEAKER_02I I think you'd do better Pony Express.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's custom made, it's made to order, so I had to uh have it all made and uh uh once it gets to a certain date, um it'll get printed up and sent out your way.
SPEAKER_02It's not necessarily just to send me something. I I I do I do this uh and uh so many people appreciate uh hearing from me. Yeah, yeah. I get I get tears. Some of these people have lost their dad. Their grandpa, their uncles. We all served in the same war. The same war. And if it weren't for those guys, I I wouldn't be able to be here. They paved the way for me. Thank you all, thank you, thank you, thank you. This has been a digital four tin production.