https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B097ST521H/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
Posted on 06/06/2022 11:19:40 AM PDT by DFG
A 99-year-old World War II veteran who became a viral TikTok star while opening up about his wartime experiences has made an emotional return to Normandy in order to honor the thousands of his fellow soldiers who died on D-Day.
Jake Larson joined the National Guard when he was only 15 years old - more than 80 years ago - and participated on the June 6, 1944, battle on Normandy beach in France which saw the 'land, air, and sea forces' come together for the 'largest invasion in human history' according to EisenhowerLibrary.gov - also known as D-Day.
Now, the vet has become an internet sensation after sharing his experiences of fighting in the war in a series of videos, which were posted to TikTok under the username @StoryTimeWithPapaJake by his granddaughter, McKaela.
She started the account in 2020, and she has since gained more than 479,000 followers and has raked in more than six million likes across the videos.
According to McKaela, who is from California, her grandfather lied about his age when he was a teen so he could join the U.S. Army at age 15.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B097ST521H/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
If you want to watch a great long interview with Jake Larson, here is a link to Jock Willink’s podcast where he was on for a little over 2 hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrEei6yrZaM&t=8324s
How did they look so mature at such young ages? Nothing like today’s pudgy, dough faced, pimply recruits.
The food back then wasn’t loaded with sugar and preservatives. And most families cooked a lot from scratch.
The largest invasion in human history is occurring now at our southern border.
“How did they look so mature at such young ages? “
Doing hard farm work from a young age.
God bless him.
Life was harder, worked from a to my age and didn’t get out in front of the boob tube eating Cheetos.
Life was harder, worked from a early age and didn’t veg out in front of the boob tube eating Cheetos.
If he’s 99 now, he would have been 21 in 1944. If he joined the NG when he was 15 that would have been 1938.
FWIW it said he joined the National Guard at age 15, so it could have been 1938, before the war.
I think a lot of it has to do simply with the tenor and atmosphere of the times. Young people actually *aspired* to maturity back then, and it showed in their all-around bearing - there were mature people presented as adults in the movies and other pop culture.
Now the ‘ideal’ is acting like teens well into the third decade.
Communism hadn’t had 100 years to destroy humanity yet.
Since this is the 78th Anniversary of D-Day, that means this man had been in the military for 6 years, and was 21 when he participated in the D-Day invasion. Which means he had to have joined the Army in 1938.
Put a huge smile on my face!!
bump for later
What a man!
Thank you for posting this. There are not many WWII Veterans left to tell the stories.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.