Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is Jake Larson. He's a US Army veteran of the D Day Invasion and served all the way through the end of the war in Europe. Over the past few years, Jake has become a viral TikTok star thanks to his granddaughter posting their conversations about his service online. And Jake, thank you very much for being with us. Pleasure, It's a pleasure. Thank you. Where were
you born and raised, sir? I was born in all time in Minnesota. I was raised I'm a farm two miles west of Hupe, Minnesota. And was there a history of military service in your family? Eh? No, but I started one. Excellent excellent will you joined the National Guard when you were only I'm fifteen years old? Why did you want to join at that age? It was a matter of money. My dad couldn't afford. There's a very bad depression at that time, and my dad couldn't afford for
me to stay in town. We lived fourteen miles from the school, and I had to work for my room and board, so I couldn't go out for any sports. I had to rush home, always in help. So you joined the National Guard in nineteen thirty eight, so this is before World War Two by three years. What kind of duties did you have in the National Guard. We were preparing to be cannon for We learned to march, we learned to shoot, and being a farm boy, we were brought up
with guns soul, it was a natural thing to be shooting. Now you were about to leave the National Guard. I understand when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Tell me how you heard that news. There was a Sunday and somehow someone mentioned the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor. What is Pearl Harbor? We didn't even know what Pearl Harbor was, but they said it was part of the Hawaiian Islands. They're in Hawaii. So you obviously stayed
in the service. I didn't have much choice. There were no discharges, but for anyone. Once the war started, you were as you were. Tell the end of the war. Where did they send you and train you? At that point, I was in Camp Clayborne, Lowisiana at that time, had been there since February tenth. We were shipped to Fort Dickson, New Jersey for embarkation over England someplace we didn't know where, but we ended up in North Ireland. That was the big training ground for the thirty fourth
Infantry Division. I was a former company clerk in headquarters company. I got busted down to private, so when I went to North Ireland, I was Private Jake Larson. But your records go with you. My record when Captain Erickson broke me down to a private, he said, you're going to beat in the wire section. You'll be climbing poles and string for it. I
was an expert typist and it changed my life. Where I was planning on climbing poles and stringing wire instead a staff sergeant, Staff Sergeant Jeffrey and Corporal William Cray and Private Jake Larson. We were sent to a center in North North Ireland where we transferred Americans that had joined the Canadian forces or the British forces before we got into war. And we we transferred those guys back into the United States Army at whatever rank they had. My job was to sell
sell them GI insurance. Just all dried up. About thirty three days I was back planning on climbing poles, street and Laire, Like Captain Erickson had promised me. Three days after Bath, I was transferred into G three, Fifth Corps. I had no knowledge at all what even a corps was. Come to find out there are two corps in an army. I came from an infantry company. Does since happened, there's no one ever gets transferred from
the infantry into corps headquarters except Jake Larson. It's one of the miracles of my life. And it's crazy. So now that you're attached to the fifth Corps. How soon after that were you part of the D Day invasion That was in nineteen forty two in North Ireland. We trained the thirty fourth Division for Operation Torch in North Africa. When we invaded that, I transferred from the thirty fourth Division. I had two first cousins that were in Company F
there and they went down on Torch. When they went to Torch, I went to Bristol, England with the Fifth Corps. Then were transferred to Taunton, Somerset in nineteen forty three, then to Portsmouth, England, where Eisenhower Bradley had set up the command and uh Colonel Hill out of d G. Threed or thirty of us I in G three. He picked me to go with him and I got in on the plans of d D Day. I was uh elevated in uh t to uh the highest kind of a secrecy you
can possibly get. E. Every person that landed on D Day, every person that landed on D Day on Omaha Beach came through my fingers. I look back at it now, it's it's an honor. Here's another thing. It's like I'm bragging when I'm telling my story, and I've gotta tell it like this, the boy, cause this is the way it was. Colonel Hill being Fifth Corps, we were Fifth Corps was in charge of Omaha Beach
and seventh Corps was in charge of Utah Beach. And between Fifth and seventh Core we were First Army, so we had to keep dialogue going with First Army. All right, So take me to June of nineteen forty four and the beginning of the mission across the English Channel. What was the ride like? Well, here is another thing. It's like I'm bragging when I'm telling my story, and I've got to tell it like this because this is the
way it was. Colonel Hill being Fifth Corps, we were fifth Corps was in charge of Omaha Beach and Seventh Corps was in charge of Utah Beach. And between Fifth and Seventh Core we were First Army, so we had to keep dialogue going with First Army. Tell me about the right across the English Channel and what happened as the morning broke right across the English Channel. I was on the command ship. That was one of the roughest rides in the
world. We started across and we had a terrific storm come in and they called off. We were supposed to land on the fifth. We boarded on the fourth of June and we were supposed to land on the fifth. There was no one slept. There was adrenaline stretch, so we went back into to ports wherever we're at the time and kept out of the storm. Then it was June fifth. We went across the English Channel and it was still rough three four foot waves and the morning of the invasion started early for the
airborne troops. They dropped in behind the lines that we were supposed to come to and disrupted the British were dropping their troops up behind. They captured this bridge with gliders. The capture of those bridges which made a difference in the way we came in and took over Omaha Beach in Utah Beach because we had support behind the lungs. That's Jake Larson, a US Army veteran of World War II, including D Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy on June sixth,
nineteen forty four. Mister Larson is now an Internet sensation after his granddaughter posted her conversations with him about his military service on social media. Still to come in this edition, mister Larson talks about the difficulty in getting into the landing crafts, taking withering fire from the Germans above Omaha Beach, and the numerous moments on that day that he believes his life was miraculously spared. In just a moment, you'll hear his vivid memories of Omaha Beach on D Day.
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles Sixty Seconds of Service. This sixty Seconds of Service is presented by T Mobile. T Mobile offers exclusive discounts for a veteran and military family and are proud supporters of the National Defense Network. Visit t mobile dot com slash military to learn more about how they support our military community. A new federal report shows a nineteen percent increase in the
number of veterans experiencing homelessness in Texas. Local and national advocates are here to help. There is no VA program in Brian College Station. Veterans looking to
access those programs have to travel to Temple for service. Last year, we were able to place four different individuals that were veterans in the system, and through our collaboration with the VA up in Temple, Twin City Mission Director Community Relations Ron Krozier said local organizations like Twin City Mission have stepped up there at home to try and close that gap through their own programs, offering services to
help those experiencing homelessness find stability and transition into housing. For more great Veterans stories, just go to National Defense Network dot com. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is Jake Larson. He's a US Army veteran of World War Two and the Allied invasion of Normandy, coming ashore at Omaha Beach on the morning of June sixth, nineteen forty four,
and that's exactly where we pick up the story. Mister Larson is about to make the harrowing journey to Omaha Beach from the English Channel, but first he describes the serious challenge of getting on the landing crafts in the first place.
When you go down those rope they aren't even ladders, they're just strung over, just rope, and your timing down with seventy five pounds of material hand to your back, and you're carrying your rifle over your shoulder, and the waves that's hired do whatever came up three four feet, so you had to watch how you got into the boat because the boat would come up to meet you or pull away from you. That was one of the most difficult
times. I was the first one in the back of the boat, so I sat by the Navy pilot and watched everybody come into the boat take their places, or thirty of us on there. And I came over with members of the first Infantry Division, the sixteenth Infantry Regiment. This stands out from me because later in my life, when I came over for the seventy fifth anniversary of D Day, I had the five different reporters took me down to
the cemetery. I had never been in the military cemetery before. I asked what they wanted me to do, and they said, walk up there. Pretend you're reading what's on the cemetery on the cross. So I walked down and stood and read, and on that cross it's a private I don't remember his name, from the sixteenth Infantry, first Division. It can't happen that way, but it did. And it was just like, what are those guys from my boat? Was there was there to greet me? It's crazy,
tell me about coming ashore. Coming ashore. The navy pilot let us out too far. We were getting a lot of hits, and we were under terrific small arms fire. Those big guns fourteen inch eight inch and stuff. We're shooting over our heads, but we were walking through a minefield. Over one million mines were planted under our feet. So I'm sitting here in the last So when they dropped the front end of that boat and dropped us off into that water, the water was up to our chins, who were
holding the rifles over our heads. And we followed in the line, and I mean we stepped where the person in front of us stepped, because if you if you stepped on one of those mines, there was a spurt of water come up. That meant somebody stepped on the mine. And of course we weren't the only ones that were in line. There were lines going all over and every time you see it, spurt of water come out of one
of those lines, that means somebody stepped on a landline. And when we got closer to the shore, I peeled off from my unit and went on Easy Red, and come to find out, Easy Red was the killingest of all the lines, twenty four hundred casualties on Easy Red. I came on that Easy Red and I came through without a scratch. I got in the shore and there was a little berm. I had had two Mg forty two machine guns shooting at me from opposite ends of the cliff, and they had
me under fire. But that little burms sandstone burms six eight inches tall was like a god send for me. It was my protector. That's when I got a cigarette out of my pack that didn't get wet and put it in my mouth, and I pulled out a wet match. So I sent someone to my left, so I says, buddy, have you got a match? And I got no answer. So I turned and there was his helmet,
but there was no head under the helmet at that moment. It was like his soul himself was telling me get up and go run right now they get off of that beach. So I got up and ran and just it seems I got up. It's like I made this up. But both of those machine guns shut off for a few seconds or more, and I got running, and then they opened up again and they were trying to catch up with me. I was five't ten inches tall at that time. I've
weighed one hundred and twenty pounds. I'm thinking, well, those Germans, they don't know how they shoot at a toothpick. But I made it to the cliffs safe. A miracles. What are the miracles in my life? That's Jake Larson, a US Army veteran of World War Two, the D
Day Landings and the Battle of the Bulge. When we come back, mister Larson takes us through the rest of D Day, how getting an unpleasant assignment likely saved his life that evening, and the response ability he feels at age one hundred and one to tell his story, the stories of those who died there and the veterans who have since passed on I'm Greg Corumbus, and this
is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is Jake Larson, a US Army veteran of World War II. Today we're hearing all about his service on D Day, June sixth, nineteen forty four, during the Allied invasion of Normandy. Still to come, you'll hear mister Larson further explain how his life was miraculously spared at Omaha Beach. But first he tries to describe the sound of war at Omaha Beach,
the challenges. It was like somebody was shooting firecrackers. A whole bunch were shooting big boomsmall booms. Just never see a war movie. This was intensified. It's hard to describe. I'm a twenty one year old sergeant at that time, twenty one years old. You don't know whether you're going to make it or not. Omaha Beach was a killing beach. There's ninety five one hundred buried under the cross. There's another fifteen hundred, fifteen hundred that they
couldn't find a trace of. So those big guns must have found a mark in somebody. It's crazy, And the craziest thing is I'm sitting here talking to you about my experience. I am the only one left. All those guys I was with, they've all gone on and just can't last forever. In less than two months, I'm going to be one hundred and one. I don't have an acre or pain in my body. I'm blessed. I truly am blessed, and I got total recognition. Why can't I remember all
this stuff? Why do I remember names? Life has been so great for me. I have a saying, there is a God. I'm living proof there is a god. Jake, you were saying a little while ago, how you were able to advance when the machine guns stopped for a little while. Once they started up again, how did you keep pressing ahead? You put a move on and they have to try to catch up with you. You don't let them catch up. I could move pretty fast at that time.
Quite a difference from right now. We're coming out of the off the beach. You don't run up the bluff. That's when you're off the beach. Then that's when the Germans are shooting you from the back too. And we have to this ravine that we were gonna use to uh get up off the beach. The ravine was filled with barbed wire by the Germans, where they had pipes that were filled blasting material. They plug into each other.
So we've run some of some of those blasting pipes up there. And while they were running those up there, three of those guys were killed by the Germans. Then when they brew that Barbaroia haunted her, it opened up for the rest of us. The Germans just cleared out. Once we got through and got up behind them, they just left. What did you do after they left? After they left, I found colonel Lieutenant Colonel Pratt, we started to set up the command post. What were you thinking at the end
of the day. I don't remember so much. I remember setting up the command post. I don't remember doing it. I just remember it's done. End of the day. It was about a quarter after seven. I realized I was digging a foxhole along with Corporal Medicine Rich. He was digging his foxhole. We were going to sleep. We were done with the war. We we had a beachhead and I found a a litter that hadn't been used,
So I dug my foxhole a little bit longer. So I put that litter in the bottom, and then if I put my sleeping stuff on the top, that litter would protected from the moisture. It was canvas. At quarter after seven, somebody hollered from the command post, Sergeant Larson, Colonel Hill wants to see you right now. So Colonel Hill is a full bird colonel. He and I worked on on the invasion together. So he got me in. He says, Uh, Sergeant, he says, First Army
wants me to keep G's tree open twenty four hours a day. He says, you're gonna run the night shift. I says, starting, wind Sir, he says, starting right now. It was quarter after seven. So I went back and told Corporal Rich, I says, Maddie. I says, you can sleep in my fox hole. Now, I got that litter in there, he says, Jakeie, I got my flork sack already here. I'm I'm beat, I'm I'm going to bed. So he laid his M one grand rifle on my litter. He went to sleep. I went
to work. At midnight. The Germans sent over a plane to uh find out what we were doing. So they l lit up that the whole thing with flares and took pictures out. Well, aggravates are gunners from that shoot the big guns at the planes. So they started shooting up at the plane that was flying around there and taking pictures. Then that died off, and I'm supposed to be operating G three at night. I don't remember anything else except that plane flying over and all the guns going off and shooting, And
the next thing I knew I was being relieved. There was seven thirty in the morning. So I walked over to Madison Rich. He picked up his rifle off of my liver and it broke into a piece of shrapnel that they had shot up at that German airship came down and hit shrapnel laying on my litter. There is a god. How is it possible? Those Grand rifles were eight pounds that they were solid you see, that had to be hit just perfect in order to break apart. See I got through the invasion without
a scratch. How Come I wasn't on that litter? How come I was picked to go and operate G three that night. I don't remember doing anything, but I was there and it saved my life. It's crazy, It's plain crazy. Jake, When did you finally get a chance to sleep? You mentioned that you were up since June fourth. Basically, that's the whole thing. They don't have war at night. I've worked at night, things stopped down, and during the day time, well I'm supposed to be sleeping,
they're shooting. They're trying to kill each other. I was in a ditch. It was about three foot high. It was alongside of the road, and I had a shelter half up on there, plugged in, and I can go to sleep in five minutes. And you could put dynamite under me. That would be the only thing that would wake me up, or but it would kill me. At the same time, I have the ability
to sleep and nothing will wake me up. So I woke up and about two o'clock and on the road just alongside of me, there's guys walking there. They're carrying bags or something, and they're coming up to me and they're laying these bags up. They were sand bags one hundred and fifty five millimeters shell shell. That wall that bigger route was laying five foot from where I'm sleeping, and they were sandbagging it so they could blow it. And I said What the hell are you doing down there? I says, I just
brushed my teeth. I says, I'm gonna shave. Now get the hell out of there. You're supposed to be out there. We got one hundred and fifty five mid shell here that came over right where you're sleeping. You can't make this stuff up. It's how come I came close, always came close, but close only counts in horseshoe and grenades. It's crazy, just
plain crazy. Well, Jake, many years later, of course, you become famous because of your granddaughter hearing your stories, filming your stories and putting them out there on social media for other people to find, and they become extremely popular. So one of the reasons you're here is to tell your story. So what does it mean to you that so many people now know not only what you did, but all these other people that you can tell their stories. It caused me to write a book and the name of that book
is the Luckiest Man in the World. Who in the world wouldever write a book like that? The luckiest man in the world, I'm telling you. After I joined the Army National Guard at fifteen for the money that was twelve dollars every three months I'd get but it was like money from heaven. Then I got the experience. We were like soldiers. We were ready for war when it came. It was these youngsters that grew up karen rifles, being
able to shoot them and not being afraid to give their life. There were so many that gave their life, and it's my duty to honor those guys. I'm here today to tell these stories, and what an honor to serve with these people. Every one of those guys, they're the hair. I'm not a hero. I'm just relating what I did, and we're trained to do this, every one of us. We're trained to do this. So those guys, those guys that have passed on, they're the real heroes.
They're the ones I talk about. They made it possible for me to get through by giving their life. Jake, just a couple more questions. What are you most proud of from your service? I've already don't know how to answer that, because sitting here I talked to a lot of units. My book is popular with the teachers. I've got eleven teachers that I know of that are using my book as their history book. I've got the University of Delaware. The history professor there, he interviewed me for four hours. He
came from Delaware to California and interviewed me for four hours. He he's using that book that he interviewed me with to train his future professors of history, and that interview is in the library of Eisenhower in Kansas. There's a pride that I'm getting the history of what really went on. And these things are so vivid to me and why there's got to be a god somehow these stories. You can't make these up. I'm so blessed to have them, and
they linger, and it's my duty to get them out. Finally, Jake, what does it mean to you to have the American Veterans Center record and share your story. Oh, it means the world. It means the world. I'm so thankful to those veterans, and I want the people that are alive and have lost veterans in their service. You can't imagine how many people
comment on that. They write to me. There's people that call me on the phone and tell me you have given new life to me because the way you told the story, my grandpa was there or my uncle was there, it's such a pleasure to hear from those people, and I've got thousands of them. I answer every one of their letters, every one of their letters.
Jake, it's an honor to speak with you today, sir. Thank you so much for your time, and we thank you for your service and for your commitment to telling not only your own story of service, but of many of those that you served alongside. So thank you very much. It's been a pleasure. Jake Larsen is a US Army veteran of World War Two. He was at Omaha Beach on D Day, served at the Battle of Bulge and throughout the war in Europe. He's now an Internet sensation because of
his conversations about the war with his granddaughter. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.