I've never met a veteran I didn't like, and I've never met a veteran whose story wasn't amazing. Personal pages of living history. Our history. Every human life is an important story that needs to be told, and everyone is a hero to someone. However, my passion, and photography focuses primarily on the military, veterans, and WWII historical preservation.. the stories, faces and heroes of the "greatest generation."
One such story is that of Jake McNiece, a name that may sound unfamiliar to most of you, but not to the halls of history and the great Second World War.
I had the great honor of meeting Jake this week when Ken, the kids, and I visited Martha and Jake in their home for about an hour, which in my mind was absolutely too short. I am forever grateful for their willingness to let complete strangers into their home as they greeted us at the door with hugs and handshakes.
So who is Jake and what did he do that was so important? According to Jake he did the same thing every other soldier did. Fought a war. Like many, Jake was just a young man from a small town, lived through the depression and dust bowl, and in his own words "joined the military only to help fight the war, and do his part and put an end to it."
But something interesting happened. Jake made history, in some unimaginable and legendary ways. Let me backtrack a bit. Jake McNiece was a paratrooper in the 506th, 101st Airborne division. He is the founder of the legendary "Filthy Thirteen". The picture above shows Jake (on the right) the day before they made their jump into Normandy on D-Day. That picture immortalized Jake and his unit and spawned inacurate stories from "a band of dirty Indians", "convicts", and even as far as a movie being made titled "Dirty Dozen." For the record, none of that information is correct. The only one who was close to Indian was Jake who has Indian ancestry, and none were convicts. The movie was highly inaccurate mostly because Jake refused to endorse the movie as he didn't want to earn blood money on his dead comrades. Hollywood in its usual manner created an outlandish war story sprinkled with a few facts.
I'll be honest, while reading Jakes book on the Filthy Thirteen, I initially wasn't sold on Jake as a person. He was as rough and tough as they come and unfortunately as many young men do, behaved and did things that any mother would not want her son doing. Yet as I turned the pages into Jake's life and experiences in WWII, I came to find that beneath his wild ways, Jake possessed those great qualities and characteristics typical of that generation, and ultimately Jake was a natural born leader. By the end of the book I found that Jake McNiece was a great man.
A paratrooper (demolition/saboteur) had one of the most dangerous jobs in the Army, in fact so dangerous that initially it was all voluntary. The Army estimated that the average life span of a paratrooper was one and a half jumps, or 50% casualties. That's because for the most part when they were jumping out of those planes, they were being shot at from the ground. Sounds a bit like a demented form of target practice to me. Jake said their unit actually experienced up to 70% casualties. When he was in the Pathfinders they had a casualty rate of 80%. The Army would put ten men in a "stick" as Jake liked to call it, because they figured they would lose 8 of the men which would leave 2 to do the job efficiently. On his first jump over Normandy for D-day, the pilot in his friend Jack's plane had already been shot in the head and killed. Not a great way to start your mission. If you made the jump then you had to stay alive long enough to fight the enemy face to face, all while trying to blow up enemy bridges or targets with only the explosives that you brought along with you.
Without recounting the whole book, Jake made an unheard of 4 combat jumps in 4 major campaigns. During his Army career he was constantly in trouble, so much so that regardless of the fact that he was in charge of men on the ground and technically an acting Sergeant, was pivotal in these campaigns, and earned numerous awards and medals, never made it past Buck Private, something he is actually very proud of. (To understand that you have to understand that Jake believed that a man should earn respect and never joined the Army to salute some higher up, stand in formation or all those intricacies of Army life, he joined to get the job done. The Army was in constant turmoil with Jake but in all reality knew they could not let him go. There wasn't a General out there that could get rid of Jake. In fact, when he volunteered for the Pathfinders he said (with a laugh) "it was about the only place the Army could kill you legally if they had no other way to do it."
We talked candidly and one learns quickly that Jake honors and reveres all those who fought and died in the war. He said plainly "War is hell, there were over 400 thousand who lost their lives and over 80 thousand still missing... when I visit the VA and walk the halls and see all the young vets from Iraq and Afghanistan missing limbs, it's hell, most of the public doesn't see that."
I wondered as I often do, how so many WWII veterans, who saw and experienced such horrible things, were able within reason to live productive successful lives, yet we see soaring numbers of PTSD cases affecting our troops today. Jake agreed and didn't hesitate to answer when he said "I believe that the Great Depression and Dust Bowl was ultimately a gift from God that prepared us and our nation to fight the war that we would be faced with. We learned some hard lessons. The current generation has not lived through extreme rough times which prepare you to face challenges." Martha also reminded us that the whole nation participated whether at home or abroad. Jake makes no excuses though and admits that he still has nightmares, but then again he said that every combat veteran has nightmares, but it doesn't deter him from enjoying life.
In the end Jake McNiece really isn’t about what he did, but stands as a witness of the 1000’s of stories that have gone untold from the war. When I asked Jake to sign my copy of his book, he asked if I had anyone in my family who has served. I explained that my grandfather served in WWII and my dad served in the 60’s. With that, Jake’s signature in the book was simple “Thank you for the service of your family.” That in itself lands Jake in my book of “ultimately cool hero.”
But let me clear something up. Here was a man who despite his wild ways as a young man (he gave that all up shortly after the war) led a successful, happy productive life, is quite soft spoken yet still has that witty blunt sense of humor that I believe helped him face insurmountable odds during the war and who at the young age of 91 devotes much of his time traveling to speak to groups about the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne.
In Jake's book he jokingly says that he survived because he was a trouble maker and the Lord didn't want him causing trouble in Heaven or Hell. As we wrapped up our conversation Martha mentioned that Jake has been living on borrowed time since 1945. I turned to Jake and said "well, maybe the Lord still can't figure out where to put you!" which made all of us laugh.
Jake, who during the war didn’t adhere to really anything, later embraced Christianity, stood as we were about to leave, asked for a word of prayer. There standing in his small simple living room, clasping hands together almost as a family with his wife Martha, Jake offered up one of the most simple humble but powerful prayers I have heard, asking for a blessing on us as we traveled and thanking the Lord Jesus Christ for all that we had. His hands still feel strong.
To end let me tell a bit about the photograph. The Filthy Thirteen photograph above shows Jake on the right, putting paint on one of the men's faces. I think his name was Manie. He never made the Normandy jump but died later in the war. True to Jake's antics and constant wild ideas and behavior, the reason for the Mohawk was simple. If Jake was going to fight in this war he was going to make the best of it, and decided that since he was from Oklahoma and that Indians would paint their faces before going into battle, he shaved his head and put on war paint. This must have also helped with the anxiety of the men who within hours may or may not be alive. It was this shot that immortalized the "Filthy Thirteen."
Thank you Jake for telling your story. Our generation needs to hear it.
Finally, thank you to my husband and children who support me as I chase down these 80+ year old men (and sometimes women) of the greatest generation to capture their faces and stories. I love doing what I do and like Hugh Nibley once said of those who love history "I love to learn something old everyday."
I think that one day Daria and Dustin will be able to look back and realize that they had a front row seat to learn history from those who lived it.
