D-DAy June 6, 1944
Papa Jake (Jake Larson) died July 17, 2025, at 102. He was the best known of a handful of D-Day Omaha Beach survivors because he wrote his memoir “The Luckiest Man in the World: Stories from the Life of Papa Jake.” He also obtained fame by talking about World War II on TikTok with help of his granddaughter.
It’s good thing he wasn’t still alive to hear the speech made in Normandy, France, last week by Defense (War?) Secretary Pete Hegseth at the D-Day commemoration ceremonies. He focused not on the GI’s landing on Omaha Beach, but on Europe’s beaches being invaded now by “dangerous ideologies.” His focus embraced the Great Replacement theory that says the culture of white Europeans and Americans is being undermined by people of color from Africa and Asia.
In my reading of his speech, it was as if he reversed the Allied and Nazi positions. For those who want to understand the sacrifice for democracy of D-Day better, watch the first 20 minutes of the 1998 movie “Saving Private Ryan.” There are no words to describe the horror of that day.
If Papa Jake were still alive to hear the speech, I think he would have a few words to say about Secretary Hegseth and he would have identified him as one of the guys up in the bunker overlooking the beach, wearing a Swastika, shooting down at him and his fellow GIs.