This past month, my great uncle Jake died. He's shown above here on the right. I mostly just interacted with Jake as a child during family reunions at this camp in Oklahoma. Our extended family would gather at this remote lake and choke on the southern humidity while Jake cooked up 2000 calorie meals for us and told outrageous stories. He was a kind man that loved to make us kids laugh. I was pretty young the last time that I saw Jake but here's what I remember.
- He was hilarious
- He didn't put up with any of the mean older boys bullshit
- He killed a diamondback snake in the shower house by crushing it's head and tried to keep it on the DL
- He was a freakin' hero to us kids
As a child, that's about as good as a hero gets, but as I grew up, he continued to be a hero in my mind. Right before his passing, he received
the medal of Knight in the French Order of the Legion of Honor. That is the greatest honor that France can give someone and was established by my favorite Frenchie, Napoleon in 1802. It was great to know that France has a similar opinion of my uncle as I do.
Jake was a paratrooper in WWII and led an elite demolition unity called the
Filthy Thirteen. Hollywood adapted the story into the Dirty Dozen, one of the most popular WWII movies, and had Lee Marvin play uncle Jake as seen here:
More can be read about that
here as it was of course, a longer story.
I am so proud of uncle Jake, as he meant so much to our family and the world. He was a lovely and humble Man.
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