Jake’s story of his grandfather in World War II honors those on Veterans Day

He was 19 years old and the co-pilot of a B-24 shot down in World War II.

Jake Skorheim told the story of his grandfather, Jim, on KIRO Newsradio’s Jake and Spike Show.

I think back to my grandpa. He was a pilot in World War II. I think about what they were asked to do in World War II and what they did at that age.

I was texting my mom this morning. I said, ‘Mom, how old was grandpa when he was flying in World War II? He was a pilot. How old was he?’ In my memory was he was 21. She said, ‘No, he was 19.’

So at 19, you’re sent off to save the world. He flew a B-24 which was, which was called the Flying Coffin. The reason they call the Flying Coffin is there was only one entry point. It was in the it was in the tail of the plane. So the majority of the crew in the plane, if there was something wrong, had a very difficult time getting out.

There were a lot of those planes that were shot down in World War II. They made 14,000 of them, 6,000 of them were shot down or didn’t complete their service.

My grandpa’s plane was was shot down. They were in France. They made the decision to ditch the plane.

The cool thing about the story is we never would have known it were it not for my sister. When she was very young, she had an assignment in class, and she was asked by her teacher to talk to somebody from the military. This was 30 years ago. A lot of these guys we’ve lost, like so many of that generation. They had this assignment and I think maybe she was in kindergarten or something. They were supposed to ask them something they were proud of in their service, or maybe a situation that was very scary for them in their time of service.

So she asked my grandpa, who never really talked about the war, right? A lot of those guys did not. So he tells her about it, and he tells this story that I think my mom maybe knew, but again, it wasn’t something that he talked about all the time. So actually typed it out for her, and at the time, he faxed it to the family because she was going to use it as a school assignment. He said he was in his plane and they were having to ditch.

They were over enemy territory. This is in France, and they realized that there wasn’t enough parachutes packed on the plane, and so they weren’t all going to be able to jump. And so my grandpa was the co-pilot of the plane and the pilot decided it was a pilot’s decision. The pilot says, ‘All right, myself and you.’

My grandpa’s name is Jim. The pilot told the crew, ‘Me and Jim are going to stay in the plane. We’re gonna try to crash this thing somewhere, and the rest of you jump out because there’s only enough parachutes for the rest of them.’

The rest of the guys jump out of the back of the plane, and my grandpa and the pilot land this thing in a field and somehow survive it. They kind of knocked around in the process. They end up coming to and then they realize that they’re in enemy territory, and now they’ve got to spend a couple of weeks getting back to allied territories.

When you think about all of the things that he had to go through in the crash, just being in war, surviving in enemy territory, making his way back so that someday he could survive the war and get back to my grandmother. And if none of that happens, I’m not here, and neither is my mom, and neither are my kids,  and he’s 19 years old at the time. And when you think about the sacrifice that those guys made and the bravery required of those like very young people. It’s just floors me.”

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Spike O’Neill, co-host of Jake and Spike, said Jake’s story reminded him of his father.

“My dad served in Vietnam and had even a very different Veteran experience than those who came back from other ways,” Spike said. “My dad saved my life, and I say that without any hesitation because he married my mom, who was a single mom with two young boys, and he came directly from war.

“After two tours in Nam, he came back and married the single mother of two, and literally straightened out my brother and I and put us on the straight and narrow, and got us where we needed to be, and gave us what we needed as boys, young men, adults,” he added.

Spike also said how much he liked “Band of Brothers.”

“I’ve seen the whole thing probably three times, and I’ve seen various clips of it,” he said. “It usually comes on around Veterans and Memorial Day. It would be a nice gesture for HBO to make sure that gets reintroduced to a new audience of Americans.”

“What I love best about ‘Band of Brothers’ are the interactions with the actual veterans from Easy Company, those gentlemen who talk about what you said,” he added. “It’s the stage of their life.”

Jake and Spike remind all of us to thank a veteran for their service today and every day.

Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here.