0:03 to the back of me there was a soldier so
0:04 so I
0:08 holl hey buddy you have you got a
0:10 match no
0:13 answer I turned and looked and there was
0:17 no head under the helmet you are about
0:20 to Embark upon the great crusade to meet
0:22 this mounting aggression and make no
0:26 mistake about it good will
0:30 prevail I was born in oana Minnesota
0:34 and and raised in two miles west of Hope
0:38 on a farm my dad could not afford to pay
0:41 for my room and board in town we lived
0:44 out in the country
0:47 and I was I was going to quit high
0:51 school and I I got a
0:54 job helping a lady that had eight roomman
0:56 roomman
1:01 borders and uh for for my room board so
1:03 my cousin chick and I were walking
1:07 around on a Saturday morning and walked
1:11 by the Roxy Theater and is
1:14 said Saturday
1:20 mat Jean ay America's favorite cowboy 10
1:22 cents between us we couldn't come up
1:23 with a
1:28 penny he says Jake the National
1:31 Guard is at advertising they want to
1:35 fill their ranks this is when Hitler
1:39 took the the San land from
1:42 Czechoslovakia and Ann nexted
1:45 Austria so the National Guard Was
1:55 1938 and he said chick says let's go
2:00 down to the Armory and and enlist I says
2:04 chirk we're we're 15 years old you have
2:11 old chick said to me
2:13 me
2:17 Jake we'll go down there and when they
2:20 ask you how old you are you look them
2:25 right in the eye and say 18 Years
2:28 sir he he looked up what can I do for
2:30 you young men
2:32 wow that that was
2:36 a INSP give us inspiration right there
2:38 being called young
2:42 men when we were just 15y old boys I
2:47 said sir we'd like to join the National
2:49 Guard and I'm looking at him and
2:54 thinking 18 18 18 He said what year were
2:57 you born whoa wait a minute wait a minute
3:00 minute
3:02 I was I was born in
3:05 1922 take three away from from that that's
3:07 that's
3:14 1919 1919 sir he says sign right here
3:18 then the Japanese hit Pearl
3:23 Harbor and the next thing I
3:27 knew the 135th infantry regimen was
3:31 moved to Fort Dixon New Jersey for
3:34 embarkation so we we went [Music]
3:36 [Music]
3:40 overseas and uh started off out in in
3:44 Arma North North Ireland got transferred
3:49 into G3 of fifth core I didn't even know
3:54 what G3 was at that time and fifth core
3:56 what in the world is that man I'm a from
4:04 out
4:09 core there's two cores under every
4:15 Army and a core has two divisions on in
4:20 it man I'm I'm a from an infantry
4:23 regiment you can't get any
4:28 lore and here I am up up next to Army
4:30 and G3
4:35 G's in in the
4:39 core G1 is Personnel G2
4:41 G2
4:44 intelligence where they go out and get
4:47 Intelligence on the enemy and they inform
4:48 inform
4:53 G3 the plans and training
4:57 plans I became
5:09 people Colonel Hill picked me to go with
5:13 him to plan the
5:17 invasion we we went to
5:21 Portsmouth and that's where General
5:25 Eisenhower and all his staff was down
5:28 there I I didn't see him we worked on
5:31 the troop movements
5:34 of of our two divisions under us we had
5:37 we had the first Division and the 29th
5:40 division under us that landed on Omaha
5:43 Beach on
5:49 dday that's uh pretty pretty much how I
5:53 got in on The Invasion on dday I I
5:57 landed w w with the troops from the
6:01 first division
6:03 the 16th Infantry
6:08 Regiment and uh when we when we got to
6:12 uh the shore we we landed with water
6:14 right up to our
6:17 chins they left us off too far
6:22 out and uh I had been the first one on
6:29 LS so I sat right next to the pilot a Navy
6:34 pilot and
6:39 uh when the the ramp went
6:43 down and they got into the water and
6:48 out I was the last one in line now I'll
6:51 tell you that they they had over a million
6:54 million
6:57 mines in
7:00 that Omaha Beach
7:01 a a million
7:03 million
7:06 and there were other lines going in at
7:10 the same time that we were going in and
7:13 once in a while the SP of water would
7:16 shoot up in the air somebody stepped on
7:21 a mine I was more afraid of stepping on
7:24 a mine than I was at the gunfire coming
7:25 at us
7:29 and and when when we got up out out of
7:33 the water water I separated from the 16th
7:35 16th regiment
7:37 regiment
7:40 and I got behind a
7:52 two machine guns the German machine
7:56 guns just m machine guns for
8:03 42s shot 1,200 rounds a minute twice as
8:06 fast as any of ours
8:08 ours
8:12 so they they had me pinned down
8:15 from from both
8:17 sides of of the
8:22 cliffs and I got behind this little BM that
8:28 was 6 8 in
8:33 tall and that berm saved my life there
8:35 and while they were shooting right there
8:39 in front of that BM I I've dragged out a cigar
8:40 cigar
8:49 holder put it in my
9:01 wet I I I I I could see see per peripheral
9:02 peripheral
9:05 vision to the back of me there was a
9:08 soldier so so I
9:12 H hey buddy you have you got a
9:14 match no
9:17 answer I turned and looked and there was
9:28 helmet it it probably saved my life to
9:33 turn it's like the soul of that guy said
9:39 get up and get out of here now and by some
9:40 some
9:43 miracle those machine guns stopped to
9:47 reload or to change barrels or something
9:49 I got up and
9:51 ran to toward the
9:54 cliffs and while I was running they got
9:57 started again and they were firing at me
10:01 and I said God
10:04 what is happening I'm getting fired out
10:07 I can't I can't see anybody to shoot back
10:08 back
10:13 at I made it to the cliff without a
10:16 scratch at that time they open up the
10:20 path up up the cliff through this Ravine
10:24 that had been filled with h barb
10:26 wire couldn't get up there and the
10:30 Bangalore Torpedoes came in and they sh
10:34 shoved those up there and blasted out
10:37 that barb wire and that's when the
10:40 Germans cleared out because once you get
10:45 behind them you you got them dead to
10:47 rights so
10:53 uh I to tell you the truth I do not
10:57 remember going up that Cliff or up that
11:01 Ravine and everything the the next thing
11:04 I remember Madison Rich Corporal Madison
11:08 rich and I were digging our
11:10 our fox
11:15 holes it was 7:00 at
11:19 night on dday I had
11:21 found a
11:24 litter brand
11:28 new was just laying there so I took my
11:31 pox a little bit long ER and put that
11:33 litter in the bottom I was going to
11:37 sleep on that avoid the wet
11:44 sand and 7:15 at night
11:46 someone said from hollowed from the
11:50 command post Sergeant Larson Colonel
11:58 immediately so I went in reported to
12:00 Colonel Hill
12:03 and he says Sergeant he says I I just
12:05 got word from first
12:11 Army they want me to keep G3 open 24
12:14 hours a
12:24 shift I said starting right now he is
12:26 starting right now
12:28 now
12:35 back still wasn't 7:30 so I I went back
12:38 told Madison rich I said Maddie you you
12:41 can sleep in my Foxhole tonight I got
12:44 that litter in there and he says Jake I
12:48 got my fart sack already here so he laid
12:53 his M1 grand rifle on my litter and he
12:56 went to sleep I went to work and at midnight
12:59 midnight
13:01 German reconnaissance plane came came
13:07 over and started taking pictures they had
13:08 had
13:17 parachutes with
13:21 magnesium flares in there that lighten
13:23 up the sky
13:26 like better than daylight and our
13:29 anti-aircraft then started shooting
13:36 him and after a while that that and I
13:41 don't remember a thing until somebody
13:44 came to relieve me at 7:30 in the
13:48 morning at 7:30 they says you're off
13:54 Jake so I went went to my Foxhole and
13:56 here Madison
13:59 Rich was getting up from his
14:01 and he reached down and picked up his
14:06 rifle off of my litter and it broke in
14:11 two a piece of shrapnel from
14:14 our gun shooting at that reconnaissance
14:18 plane piece of our shrapnel came down
14:20 and hit that
14:24 rifle and broke that rifle into
14:27 two there is a
