June 4, 2025 • 33 mins
Harold Terens was just 18 years old and playing basketball with his friends when he heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Like many Americans, he had no idea where Pearl Harbor was but he definitely wanted to serve. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942 with dreams of becoming a pilot. A vision test dashed those dreams but he quickly proved proficient at receiving and sending Morse Code.
Terens left for Europe on his 20th birthday in 1943. He was assigned to the 350th Fighter Squadron in the Eighth Air Force. His job was to make sure radios on P-47 Thunderbolts were in good working order. He was also stationed there on June 6, 1944, when many of the planes in his squadron were part of the D-Day invasion. Many did not return to base.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Terens describes D-Day in vivid, painful detail and why he went to Normandy a short time later. We'll also hear about Terens narrowly escaping with his life after a German V-1 rocket, or "buzz bomb" landed next to his building in London.
A few weeks after D-Day, Terens was transferred out of England. He tells us about serving in North Africa, the Middle East, and Russia. And he shares two more instances in which he was forunate to emerge alive.
Finally, Terens tells us all about his wedding in Normandy on the 80th anniversary of D-Day and how he and his new bride were treated like royalty in France.
Terens left for Europe on his 20th birthday in 1943. He was assigned to the 350th Fighter Squadron in the Eighth Air Force. His job was to make sure radios on P-47 Thunderbolts were in good working order. He was also stationed there on June 6, 1944, when many of the planes in his squadron were part of the D-Day invasion. Many did not return to base.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Terens describes D-Day in vivid, painful detail and why he went to Normandy a short time later. We'll also hear about Terens narrowly escaping with his life after a German V-1 rocket, or "buzz bomb" landed next to his building in London.
A few weeks after D-Day, Terens was transferred out of England. He tells us about serving in North Africa, the Middle East, and Russia. And he shares two more instances in which he was forunate to emerge alive.
Finally, Terens tells us all about his wedding in Normandy on the 80th anniversary of D-Day and how he and his new bride were treated like royalty in France.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Harold Terrens. He's a US Army Air
Corps veteran of World War II. He initially served with
the three hundred and fiftieth Fighter Squadron in the Mighty
eighth Air Force, based in England. He was later moved
to several other locations to facilitate Allied shuttle bombing, including
(00:32):
the Middle East and Russia. As you can tell within
a few seconds of hearing his voice, Harold Terrens is
a New Yorker through and through.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I was born in the Bronx, New York, and I
was raised in the Bronx until I enlisted in the
Army in nineteen forty two.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
He was barely an adult on that Sunday afternoon, December seventh,
nineteen forty one, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, I was playing basketball in the schoolyard. I was
a little past at eighteen years of age, and someone
came over. It was a Sunday afternoon and they told us,
do you know the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor? And I
remember my first words were, where is Pearl Harbor. I
never heard of it, and they said it's in Hawaii.
(01:23):
I says, okay, And we continued playing basketball as if
nothing happened until the next day. President Franklin Roosevelt says,
we will all remember the Summer seventh, nineteen forty one
as a day of them for me and I herewith
asked Congress to declare war against Japan and Germany, and
(01:46):
that's when we decided to enlist.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Terence says, every kid he knew was very eager to
join the war effort.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
No, none at all. I was just patriotic on me
all my friends. We were going to get even with
the German in the Japs, especially the Japanese for bombing
Pearl Harbor, and we were all gung ho.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Terren's own parents did not want him to serve, but
finally relented when they saw that he would be the
only kid in the neighborhood not to join the service.
Terrence not only knew that he wanted to serve, he
knew why. He just had to join the Air Corps,
even though his plans didn't work out exactly as he envisioned.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I wanted to be a pilot, so I chose the AIRCUO.
But when I applied for pilots training, I took a
colorbline test that I failed, and I could not become
a pilot if I was colorbline, and I couldn't believe
I was colorblind, so I took the test again and
(02:45):
I failed again. So I did the next best thing,
and I became a radio operator. And I went to
Radio Operator Mechanics School in sou Full, South Dakota for
five months to get MAYA I degree.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well disappointed in not becoming a pilot, Terrence quickly developed
another vital skill, sending Morse code very quickly, not at all.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
None whatsoever. But I became proficient in a radio I
remember was called a five twenty two Superheterodyne receiver, and
I became a very high speed Morse code operator.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I could take.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Morse code and send it as fast as my own
could write it and as fast as he could send it.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Terrence was deployed to Europe on his twentieth birthday in
nineteen forty three, and the secrecy meant he was a
mystery no show at his own birthday party.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
On my twentieth birthday, I was home on furlough and
my parents had planned a big party in our apartment building.
In an empty apartment, they planned a big birthday for
me and I received in the morning they told me
(04:02):
everyone was confined to the base. It was in Uraschell,
New York, right on the Long Island Sound, and we
shipped out boarded a boat that night. No phone calls, nothing.
My parents to all the people at the party, had
no idea where I was, what I was doing, wired
(04:25):
and show up for the party. But I boarded a
ship called the Antlone Castle, a British ship, and we
sailed up Long Island Sound and joined a nomada of
about one hundred other ships because we felt safer when
we sailed together. You know, there were so many German
(04:48):
U boats out there looking the sink troop ships especially,
and I was on a troop ship with about twelve
thousand of the soldiers, and that would have been a big,
a big win for the Germans if they could sink us,
but they didn't. Ten days later, we we didn't know
where we were going, but we ended up in Liverpool.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Once in England, Terrence was tasked with taking care of
the radios in several P forty sevens.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I was assigned to four P forty seven thunder bullfighters,
and I was assigned to make sure that the radio
the ship to air was working. That's the five twenty
two Super hundred heterodign receivers, so that we had no
radar radar in those days, so there were only communication
(05:39):
and means of getting back to the base were this radio,
the air the ground radio that would take them bring
them back home if they were in distress or lost
their compass or whatever. I would make sure that the
radio was working. I would every day before they went
(06:02):
on a mission, I will test the radios to make
sure they were okay.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
More than eighty years later, Terrence still remembers the courage
it took for the men to fly and the many
who did not come home.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
They did everything. They had a bomb on the reach wing.
They escorted the B seventeen flying fortresses that when they
went on bombing missions. I remember the first day on
D Day, we had sixty planes on our outfit and
we lost thirty. And I knew every pilot that got
(06:37):
killed or was captured or bailed out or became a
prisoner of war. And it was a devastating experience because
within by the time I left the outfit, we lost
every single pilot. Everyone was replaced. It was we were
(06:58):
losing the war. When I first got overseas well, I
thought we were all going to get killed.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Terrence stressed that he rarely had to repair radios that
had been shot up. He primarily made sure they were
working prior to every mission.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
The only repair jobs we had were when the planes
came back and they were damaged because of shrapnel. They
were hit by shrapnel or enemy fire, but that wasn't
that often. Every single day we checked the radio to
make sure that it worked.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
When Terrence got to Britain in nineteen forty three, bomber
crews had some of the shortest life expectancies in the military.
He says, completing the number of missions to earn a
ticket home was considered a miracle.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
When the Memphis Bell was if you remember that story,
when that flying fortress flew thirty missions, it was like
a miracle. No plane flew thirty missions, no plane survived
that long. It was a miracle that they did and
that they survived them and one home.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Terrence says he quickly became close with the P forty
seven pilots as they prepared for and returned from their missions,
a difficult practice given how many men were lost.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Every single one of them was a friend of mine.
You know, we had a wonderful relationship. It was one big,
happy family, all of us, including the captain, doing no hat.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
More than twenty seven thousand Americans were killed in the
skies over Europe and World War two, and another nine
thousand were wounded. Terrence now gives us his gripping recollection
of D Day and the days that followed.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
The morning began about thirty six hours prior to the day.
We were all confined to base. Nobody was allowed on
or off. This was around June fourth, D Day with
June sixth. On June fourth, no one could use the phone.
No one could communicate with the outside world. There was
(09:03):
no male coming in or out, no communication whatsoever. What
we did for thirty six hours prior to D Day
we painted a stripe across every under each wing of
our plane, a white stripe. Every Allied plane had a
(09:24):
white stripe painted under each wing. I don't know if
history knows this, but every Allied plane that was involved
in D Day had a white stripe on so that
they were easily recognizable by other Allied planes like the
British or the Canadian Air Force. They would recognize our planes.
(09:49):
Their planes also had a white stripe. All Allied planes
were pain so we painted airplanes for We didn't even sleep.
We just had to make sure everything was in order.
We had to check everything thoroughly. We knew something was
we had no idea what was going on until D
(10:12):
They when they when they came back, the planes were damaged.
Some tried to land and exploded on on a landing,
and it was a terrible scene for the for the
balance of the my tenure at the station with the
three fifty terrible. I'm getting all emotional now. And they
(10:38):
asked for volunteers around ten days after D Day to
go to Normandy to bring back freed prisoners or war
British and American pliers that were shot down in prison
for years in the Stalags in the German prison camps
(10:58):
and they were treated by Polly. I volunteered to go.
It was quite an experienced landing in Normandy. Deep in
Normandy is D plus twelve that I first winned, and
one batch that we brought back with German prisoners that
we took that. We brought them back to England. They
(11:20):
were young kids. Mostly, they weren't even twenty years old.
Some of them they were Hitler was using all of
whatever he had left, although we were still losing the
war until D Day. Then things started to turn around.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
That's Harold Terrence. He's a US Army Air Corps veteran
of World War Two. We'll have much more of his
story in just a moment. I'm Greg Corumbus and this
is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
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Speaker 1 (12:49):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Harold Terrens, a US Army Air Corps
veteran of World War Two. Just days after the Allies
launched the D Day invasion, the Germans unleashed a surprise
of their own, the V one rocket also known as
buzz bombs, and Harold Terrence barely survived one while in London.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Most people don't know about the V one and the
V two rockets that the Germans had. The one rocket
was called a buzz bomb. It was set off from
Belgium and it chugged along in the sky. It was
a bomb that was set up and designated to land
(13:34):
in London. When this bomb stopped and you could see
the bomb going because it was it just chugged along
in the sky and when it stopped, it just went
straight down. Its purpose was to blow up whatever was
it in its path or at the end of the road. Anyway,
(13:57):
I was in an apartment building and a buzz uponmb
We watched it and stopped. We were praying for it
to pass by, and it hit the building next to
us pretty much an our building just crumbled. I was
on the fourth floor and I remember rescuing some some families,
you know, kids, and the whole place was on fire
(14:21):
and I ended up in the hospital. You don't get
a purple heart for that. The ceiling came down army
by my head. I was all cut up and I
was unconscious. It was I was almost buried in plaster
(14:41):
from the from the walls of the building, and I
thought it was buried alive at the time.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
That was a harrowing experience.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Less than a month after D Day, Tarrence suddenly found
himself being transferred and not knowing where to or why.
He suspected it was because the base commander had an
eye for Terren's English girlfriend. Regardless of the reason, Terrence
was soon in North Africa.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I went to Land's End. I boorder the plane. I
remember sitting next to Joe Lewis, who was the heavyweight
champion of the world at that time. He was entertaining
troops and six hours later, I think it was with
radio silence and of flying over enemy territory, we landed
(15:28):
in Casablanca. But while we were flying, I said, where
am I going? Why am I leaving my outfit? And
where am I going?
Speaker 4 (15:38):
And why was I sent on this mission?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
It was either to get rid of me because Captain
Neuhart wanted my girlfriend, or the fact that I was
a high speed radio operator and they needed me for
a special assignment because they were Morse code operators. With
my knowledge and wisdom of the code, they needed me
(16:08):
for a special assignment. I didn't know. To this day,
I don't know why I was sent anyway, I landed
in Casablanca. A few days later. We went to Algier's Tunisia, Libya,
and finally Cairo, and stayed there about a week waiting
(16:31):
for further orders. And then we went to the Tripoli
Baghdad and finally Terran Persia.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
I stayed there a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
I remember.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Terrence was assigned to several spots in the Middle East
to support Allied shuttle bombings, including Tehran, which led to
one of his most unpleasant memories.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I decided to go out one night, and I didn't
know when I was going to be leaving Torr and
I went into a nightclub in Turin. I sat at
the table. I ordered a glass of wine. I didn't drink,
but I guess I had ordered something. And the young
girl sat down at the table and said, may I
(17:11):
sit here? She looked like clear patcha very beautiful and
she said I have a glass of wine. I said yes,
and she slipped me a mickey. I don't know if
you know what that expression means, but in those days
it was very popular.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
She put a little pill.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
In my drink while I wasn't looking, and it knocked
me out almost completely. Two men came in, took me
on the reach, one on the reach arm put me
in a big black car, and the next thing I knew,
I ended up on the Sahara desert, emblazing sunlight. The
(17:50):
next morning, stark naked, burning to death. Can you picture that? Picture?
Me on the sand dune on the Sahara Desert in Africa,
Stark naked. I just had I did have my dog
takes on. They left me with that, and I'm holding myself,
(18:11):
covering myself from the from the sun. It was burning hot,
and I stood. I was stood that way. I lay
on the hot sand for five hours. Luckily, an mp G,
a jeep with two MPs came by because it happened before,
(18:31):
and they took me and put me in jail. They
didn't know who I was, and they kept me a
couple of days until they found my papers.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
I had my papers there. I told them to look through.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
They checked everything out and I was okay, and then
they after a few more days, I was put on
a plane to go to a poul Tava in Russia.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Heraldared this is a US Army Air Corps veteran of
World War II. We'll hear the rest of his story,
including his wedding in Normandy on the eightieth anniversary of
D Day in twenty twenty four. I'm Greg Corumbus and
this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus.
Our guest in this edition is Harold Terrans. He's a
(19:22):
US Army Air Corps veteran of World War II. Terrence
serviced radios for P forty seven Thunderbolts with the three
hundred and fiftieth Fighter Squadron in the eighth Air Force
based in England. In just a moment, we will hear
all about how Harold and his new bride made worldwide
headlines in June of twenty twenty four when they got
(19:42):
married in Normandy on the eightieth anniversary of D Day.
And that was just the beginning of a magical day
for Harold and Genie thanks to royal treatment from the
French government. But first we head back to the war
and the Allied shuttle bombings that Terrence was supporting in
North d Africa and the Middle East. Eventually he ended
(20:03):
up doing the same in Russia. Terrence explains what shuttle
bombing was and how it worked.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
My final destination. I finally got my final flight to Russia,
to the Ukraine, to a town called Poltava, and we
set up what is known today and they don't know
this in the history books, that was called twenty four
hour shuttle bombing. It started in England. The B seventeen
(20:35):
bombers would take off from England. They would bomb the
Polasti oil fields in Romania which were under German control
and they were too far from England to get back.
They didn't have enough fuel, so they continued on to
Russia to the airfield where I was waiting for them.
(20:59):
They would land there. Yeah, they would spend six hours
there refueling, getting new bomb loads, taking care of themselves.
The wounded would be taken to hospitals. Then they would
take off, bomb the plus the oil fields again and
continue on to Italy where they did the same thing
(21:20):
and then flew back to England, all in a twenty
four hour period, and that was called twenty four hour
shuttle bombing.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
But shuttle bombing didn't last long from his position in Russia,
and Terrence almost didn't last very long either. Another questionable
decision left him close to death, but he managed to
pull through.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
It ended the twenty four hour shuttle bombing when our
planes were followed into Russia by German Messa Schmidt fighter planes.
And then the next night they came over and bombed
our air field. They destroyed my tent where I lived,
and I wasn't named. The mission was aborted. It ended
(22:07):
right there and there I developed this CENTERIO ended up
in then ePRO in a hospital where almost died. I
ended up going down to eighty eight pounds in a coma,
so I drank milk that I was warned not to drink,
(22:28):
that it was not pasteurized, and it made me very sick.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
The German surrendered to the Allies in Europe officially on
May eighth, nineteen forty five, although the surrender to the
US occurred a day earlier, on May ninth, nineteen forty five.
Relieved that the war was over, Terrence found himself utterly
shocked by his encounter with a German woman who showed
no change of heart at all by the end of
(22:52):
the fighting.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
The worst story I ever heard in the war had
nothing to do with wounds or anything. It happened that
day after the war ended. It happened May ninth, nineteen
forty five. The war ended May eighth, and everybody was
celebrating that night. Before we partied, everybody was drunk. I
(23:17):
didn't drink at the time, so I just served the
whiskey in the officers club till all the pilots, everybody
got smashed. They got wasted, everybody except me. And the
next morning they asked for volunteers to go to Germany
to bring back three prisoners of war, and I volunteered,
(23:39):
and I went on a B seventeen flying fortress, and
we landed in Munster, Germany, which was bombed in every
single day and night for almost seven months. I walked
along the streets there looking for free prisoners, and they
were all wandering aimless. They were emaciated. These little pilots
(24:04):
that were shot down just released. While I was gathering
these pillows together, a German woman came over to me
and asked me if i'd like a cup of tea,
and I said yes, so I would. And she took
me into her house and she couldn't speak English, just
a few words, and she poured the tea and lifted
(24:27):
her cup and she said Heil Hitler. And I had
never heard that before, and that shook me up terribly.
It sort of made me crazy. I lost control, and
I said to her, lady, you lost the war. The
(24:49):
war ended yesterday. It's over. The boat sank. Get used
to it. And I stormed out of that place or
all upset. And to this day, some nights I closed
my eyes and I think of that scene. I said
that I shouldn't have killed her, but the war was over.
(25:10):
It was a day later. I was very upset. I
never heard Heil Hitler before he was also dead Yell.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Harold Terrans returned to Normandy in the years that followed,
and was present for the ceremonies commemorating the seventy fifth
anniversary of D Day in twenty nineteen. He enthusiastically planned
to return in twenty twenty four, but something had changed
over those five years. Terrence was now in a deeply
committed romance with Genie Swirlin, and since he has his
(25:39):
own French connection, Terrence and Swirlen not only made the
trip to Normandy for the ceremonies at the beaches, they
made plans to tie the knot just a few miles away.
Swerlin was ninety six and Harold Terrence was a spry
one hundred years old.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I have friends at the French embassy down in Miami,
so general as a friend of mine, they recommended that
I get married.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Why not it?
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Normandy went on there on June sixth, so I said
the Genie. I got on one knee in the garage.
I said, you want to get married? She said sure.
We had the most magnificent wedding ever in caroonton Ley
my day in Normandy, which is about twenty twenty miles
(26:31):
from Omaha Beach. The mayor of the town, which is
part of history, like the most fierce fighting took place
during the Normandy invasion. More in Caronton, More books. I
have so many books about Caroonton and the mayor of Caroonton,
(26:52):
Je Jean Jacques Olona, married us. My little great granddaughter
of sixteen was the flower girl. All of Genie's children
were there, My children were there. My grand daughter, who
was that president of the a cappella group at University
(27:12):
of Pennsylvania sang Whitney Houston song.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
I Will Always Love You.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
It was one of the most beautiful wedding ceremonies.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
You love.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
My friend had twenty four bagpipers playing there as well,
and we had one of the greatest opera singers, Miss Liberty, singing.
And then we had a lunch and I had all
my French friends, my dear friends there, and then I
(27:44):
got a call from the head of protocol in Paris
that the President Macrone of France is inviting me and
Jennie that night to a state dinner at the Palace,
and Biden.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Was there, and I'm overwhelmed.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
It was the greatest day of my life to get
married in the morning and have the friends secret service
drive us three hours from Normandy to Paris to the
directed the Palace. And you have no idea what took
place there. You can't imagine. It was so exciting. We
(28:26):
were the guests Ubonna, Kings and queens and presidents and
prime ministers all stood up and applaud me and Jeanie
as we walked them. And we were in every newspaper
in the world that next morning. And I remember to
get your political affiliations. I remember sitting at the table
(28:51):
with his cabinet, the Ministry of Culture. I was sitting
with Genie in the former and ambassador to Washington. Some
man put his arms around me. He says, Harold, you.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
And Genie, at this very moment are.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
The most popular people in the entire world. You're in
every front page of every newspaper in the world. And
I wasn't after newspaper's home as far away as Mongolia.
And the man that put his arm around me was
our Secretary of State, Anthony Blincoln, who was a friend
of mine. I became friendly with the lady sitting next
(29:34):
to me. We held hands the whole night. She's very
prominent socialite in Paris. Her name is Michelle laminastral Ulrich
and she is the founder of the French Historical Society,
(29:57):
very very famous. And then my friendly ambassadors ask me
anybody else you want to see? I says, yeah, would
call a Bruni be here, call her Brunie. It was
my favorite friend's singer. She's married to a former president
of France, President Nicholas Sarkozy. She's the former girlfriend of
(30:19):
Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And she came running over to me and threw her
arms around me.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
I got her picture of her hugging me at the
at the dinner, at the stake dinner. Whoever thing thought
I'd be at the palace at a steak dinner and
have all. And then President Maccone toasted me and Jeanie
in French and in English, and Nancy Pelosi came running
(30:47):
over and threw around. She remembered me from five years prior,
and she sent me a hundred birthday Greennie. There's all
one day, my wedding in the State dinner, all in
one day. People don't experience that in their lifetime.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
It's clear that spending just a few minutes thinking back
to World War Two resurfaces some fascinating and painful memories.
For Harold Terrence. He wishes students were taught a lot
more about the war, and specifically about D Day, but
his memories always come back to those he served with,
many of whom were killed in service to their nation.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
First of all, it's unfortunate that most high school students
today do not know anything about D Day. They never
heard of normany. They don't even know much about World
War Two. I don't think much of it is taught
in history classes today, and it's unfortunate that they don't
(31:49):
know the history of their country and the suffering that
everybody went through. That fifty million people were killed because
of of the war, that over forty million were wounded,
that the suffering that went on in every country of
(32:10):
the world at the time.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
It was a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
And I have so many stories that I can tell
that me and myself, I was in three different hospitals
and three different countries. I'm lucky to be sitting here.
You need luck to be one hundred and one years old.
But two years I was in a war zone. Constantly
(32:36):
in a war zone. There was a very unpleasant experience.
Even though there was a lot of fun in games,
there's a lot of tragedy and suffering.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
That's Harold Terance. He's a US Army Air Corps veteran
of World War Two. He and his wife, Jeanie, made
worldwide headlines by getting married in Normandy on the eighties
anniversary of D Day in twenty twenty four. I'm Greg
Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg
(33:18):
Corumbus and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation
of the American Veterans Center. For more information, please visit
American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow the American
Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're at AVC update.
Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube channel for full
(33:40):
oral histories and special features, and of course, please subscribe
to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks again for listening, and please join us next time
for Veterans Chronicles
Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Harold Terrens. He's a US Army Air
Corps veteran of World War II. He initially served with
the three hundred and fiftieth Fighter Squadron in the Mighty
eighth Air Force, based in England. He was later moved
to several other locations to facilitate Allied shuttle bombing, including
(00:32):
the Middle East and Russia. As you can tell within
a few seconds of hearing his voice, Harold Terrens is
a New Yorker through and through.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I was born in the Bronx, New York, and I
was raised in the Bronx until I enlisted in the
Army in nineteen forty two.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
He was barely an adult on that Sunday afternoon, December seventh,
nineteen forty one, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, I was playing basketball in the schoolyard. I was
a little past at eighteen years of age, and someone
came over. It was a Sunday afternoon and they told us,
do you know the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor? And I
remember my first words were, where is Pearl Harbor. I
never heard of it, and they said it's in Hawaii.
(01:23):
I says, okay, And we continued playing basketball as if
nothing happened until the next day. President Franklin Roosevelt says,
we will all remember the Summer seventh, nineteen forty one
as a day of them for me and I herewith
asked Congress to declare war against Japan and Germany, and
(01:46):
that's when we decided to enlist.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Terence says, every kid he knew was very eager to
join the war effort.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
No, none at all. I was just patriotic on me
all my friends. We were going to get even with
the German in the Japs, especially the Japanese for bombing
Pearl Harbor, and we were all gung ho.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Terren's own parents did not want him to serve, but
finally relented when they saw that he would be the
only kid in the neighborhood not to join the service.
Terrence not only knew that he wanted to serve, he
knew why. He just had to join the Air Corps,
even though his plans didn't work out exactly as he envisioned.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I wanted to be a pilot, so I chose the AIRCUO.
But when I applied for pilots training, I took a
colorbline test that I failed, and I could not become
a pilot if I was colorbline, and I couldn't believe
I was colorblind, so I took the test again and
(02:45):
I failed again. So I did the next best thing,
and I became a radio operator. And I went to
Radio Operator Mechanics School in sou Full, South Dakota for
five months to get MAYA I degree.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well disappointed in not becoming a pilot, Terrence quickly developed
another vital skill, sending Morse code very quickly, not at all.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
None whatsoever. But I became proficient in a radio I
remember was called a five twenty two Superheterodyne receiver, and
I became a very high speed Morse code operator.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I could take.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Morse code and send it as fast as my own
could write it and as fast as he could send it.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Terrence was deployed to Europe on his twentieth birthday in
nineteen forty three, and the secrecy meant he was a
mystery no show at his own birthday party.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
On my twentieth birthday, I was home on furlough and
my parents had planned a big party in our apartment building.
In an empty apartment, they planned a big birthday for
me and I received in the morning they told me
(04:02):
everyone was confined to the base. It was in Uraschell,
New York, right on the Long Island Sound, and we
shipped out boarded a boat that night. No phone calls, nothing.
My parents to all the people at the party, had
no idea where I was, what I was doing, wired
(04:25):
and show up for the party. But I boarded a
ship called the Antlone Castle, a British ship, and we
sailed up Long Island Sound and joined a nomada of
about one hundred other ships because we felt safer when
we sailed together. You know, there were so many German
(04:48):
U boats out there looking the sink troop ships especially,
and I was on a troop ship with about twelve
thousand of the soldiers, and that would have been a big,
a big win for the Germans if they could sink us,
but they didn't. Ten days later, we we didn't know
where we were going, but we ended up in Liverpool.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Once in England, Terrence was tasked with taking care of
the radios in several P forty sevens.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I was assigned to four P forty seven thunder bullfighters,
and I was assigned to make sure that the radio
the ship to air was working. That's the five twenty
two Super hundred heterodign receivers, so that we had no
radar radar in those days, so there were only communication
(05:39):
and means of getting back to the base were this radio,
the air the ground radio that would take them bring
them back home if they were in distress or lost
their compass or whatever. I would make sure that the
radio was working. I would every day before they went
(06:02):
on a mission, I will test the radios to make
sure they were okay.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
More than eighty years later, Terrence still remembers the courage
it took for the men to fly and the many
who did not come home.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
They did everything. They had a bomb on the reach wing.
They escorted the B seventeen flying fortresses that when they
went on bombing missions. I remember the first day on
D Day, we had sixty planes on our outfit and
we lost thirty. And I knew every pilot that got
(06:37):
killed or was captured or bailed out or became a
prisoner of war. And it was a devastating experience because
within by the time I left the outfit, we lost
every single pilot. Everyone was replaced. It was we were
(06:58):
losing the war. When I first got overseas well, I
thought we were all going to get killed.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Terrence stressed that he rarely had to repair radios that
had been shot up. He primarily made sure they were
working prior to every mission.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
The only repair jobs we had were when the planes
came back and they were damaged because of shrapnel. They
were hit by shrapnel or enemy fire, but that wasn't
that often. Every single day we checked the radio to
make sure that it worked.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
When Terrence got to Britain in nineteen forty three, bomber
crews had some of the shortest life expectancies in the military.
He says, completing the number of missions to earn a
ticket home was considered a miracle.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
When the Memphis Bell was if you remember that story,
when that flying fortress flew thirty missions, it was like
a miracle. No plane flew thirty missions, no plane survived
that long. It was a miracle that they did and
that they survived them and one home.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Terrence says he quickly became close with the P forty
seven pilots as they prepared for and returned from their missions,
a difficult practice given how many men were lost.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Every single one of them was a friend of mine.
You know, we had a wonderful relationship. It was one big,
happy family, all of us, including the captain, doing no hat.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
More than twenty seven thousand Americans were killed in the
skies over Europe and World War two, and another nine
thousand were wounded. Terrence now gives us his gripping recollection
of D Day and the days that followed.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
The morning began about thirty six hours prior to the day.
We were all confined to base. Nobody was allowed on
or off. This was around June fourth, D Day with
June sixth. On June fourth, no one could use the phone.
No one could communicate with the outside world. There was
(09:03):
no male coming in or out, no communication whatsoever. What
we did for thirty six hours prior to D Day
we painted a stripe across every under each wing of
our plane, a white stripe. Every Allied plane had a
(09:24):
white stripe painted under each wing. I don't know if
history knows this, but every Allied plane that was involved
in D Day had a white stripe on so that
they were easily recognizable by other Allied planes like the
British or the Canadian Air Force. They would recognize our planes.
(09:49):
Their planes also had a white stripe. All Allied planes
were pain so we painted airplanes for We didn't even sleep.
We just had to make sure everything was in order.
We had to check everything thoroughly. We knew something was
we had no idea what was going on until D
(10:12):
They when they when they came back, the planes were damaged.
Some tried to land and exploded on on a landing,
and it was a terrible scene for the for the
balance of the my tenure at the station with the
three fifty terrible. I'm getting all emotional now. And they
(10:38):
asked for volunteers around ten days after D Day to
go to Normandy to bring back freed prisoners or war
British and American pliers that were shot down in prison
for years in the Stalags in the German prison camps
(10:58):
and they were treated by Polly. I volunteered to go.
It was quite an experienced landing in Normandy. Deep in
Normandy is D plus twelve that I first winned, and
one batch that we brought back with German prisoners that
we took that. We brought them back to England. They
(11:20):
were young kids. Mostly, they weren't even twenty years old.
Some of them they were Hitler was using all of
whatever he had left, although we were still losing the
war until D Day. Then things started to turn around.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
That's Harold Terrence. He's a US Army Air Corps veteran
of World War Two. We'll have much more of his
story in just a moment. I'm Greg Corumbus and this
is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Sixty Seconds of Service.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
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(12:12):
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For more great veterans stories, just go to nationaldefensenetwork dot com.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Harold Terrens, a US Army Air Corps
veteran of World War Two. Just days after the Allies
launched the D Day invasion, the Germans unleashed a surprise
of their own, the V one rocket also known as
buzz bombs, and Harold Terrence barely survived one while in London.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Most people don't know about the V one and the
V two rockets that the Germans had. The one rocket
was called a buzz bomb. It was set off from
Belgium and it chugged along in the sky. It was
a bomb that was set up and designated to land
(13:34):
in London. When this bomb stopped and you could see
the bomb going because it was it just chugged along
in the sky and when it stopped, it just went
straight down. Its purpose was to blow up whatever was
it in its path or at the end of the road. Anyway,
(13:57):
I was in an apartment building and a buzz uponmb
We watched it and stopped. We were praying for it
to pass by, and it hit the building next to
us pretty much an our building just crumbled. I was
on the fourth floor and I remember rescuing some some families,
you know, kids, and the whole place was on fire
(14:21):
and I ended up in the hospital. You don't get
a purple heart for that. The ceiling came down army
by my head. I was all cut up and I
was unconscious. It was I was almost buried in plaster
(14:41):
from the from the walls of the building, and I
thought it was buried alive at the time.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
That was a harrowing experience.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Less than a month after D Day, Tarrence suddenly found
himself being transferred and not knowing where to or why.
He suspected it was because the base commander had an
eye for Terren's English girlfriend. Regardless of the reason, Terrence
was soon in North Africa.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I went to Land's End. I boorder the plane. I
remember sitting next to Joe Lewis, who was the heavyweight
champion of the world at that time. He was entertaining
troops and six hours later, I think it was with
radio silence and of flying over enemy territory, we landed
(15:28):
in Casablanca. But while we were flying, I said, where
am I going? Why am I leaving my outfit? And
where am I going?
Speaker 4 (15:38):
And why was I sent on this mission?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
It was either to get rid of me because Captain
Neuhart wanted my girlfriend, or the fact that I was
a high speed radio operator and they needed me for
a special assignment because they were Morse code operators. With
my knowledge and wisdom of the code, they needed me
(16:08):
for a special assignment. I didn't know. To this day,
I don't know why I was sent anyway, I landed
in Casablanca. A few days later. We went to Algier's Tunisia, Libya,
and finally Cairo, and stayed there about a week waiting
(16:31):
for further orders. And then we went to the Tripoli
Baghdad and finally Terran Persia.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
I stayed there a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
I remember.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Terrence was assigned to several spots in the Middle East
to support Allied shuttle bombings, including Tehran, which led to
one of his most unpleasant memories.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I decided to go out one night, and I didn't
know when I was going to be leaving Torr and
I went into a nightclub in Turin. I sat at
the table. I ordered a glass of wine. I didn't drink,
but I guess I had ordered something. And the young
girl sat down at the table and said, may I
(17:11):
sit here? She looked like clear patcha very beautiful and
she said I have a glass of wine. I said yes,
and she slipped me a mickey. I don't know if
you know what that expression means, but in those days
it was very popular.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
She put a little pill.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
In my drink while I wasn't looking, and it knocked
me out almost completely. Two men came in, took me
on the reach, one on the reach arm put me
in a big black car, and the next thing I knew,
I ended up on the Sahara desert, emblazing sunlight. The
(17:50):
next morning, stark naked, burning to death. Can you picture that? Picture?
Me on the sand dune on the Sahara Desert in Africa,
Stark naked. I just had I did have my dog
takes on. They left me with that, and I'm holding myself,
(18:11):
covering myself from the from the sun. It was burning hot,
and I stood. I was stood that way. I lay
on the hot sand for five hours. Luckily, an mp G,
a jeep with two MPs came by because it happened before,
(18:31):
and they took me and put me in jail. They
didn't know who I was, and they kept me a
couple of days until they found my papers.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
I had my papers there. I told them to look through.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
They checked everything out and I was okay, and then
they after a few more days, I was put on
a plane to go to a poul Tava in Russia.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Heraldared this is a US Army Air Corps veteran of
World War II. We'll hear the rest of his story,
including his wedding in Normandy on the eightieth anniversary of
D Day in twenty twenty four. I'm Greg Corumbus and
this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus.
Our guest in this edition is Harold Terrans. He's a
(19:22):
US Army Air Corps veteran of World War II. Terrence
serviced radios for P forty seven Thunderbolts with the three
hundred and fiftieth Fighter Squadron in the eighth Air Force
based in England. In just a moment, we will hear
all about how Harold and his new bride made worldwide
headlines in June of twenty twenty four when they got
(19:42):
married in Normandy on the eightieth anniversary of D Day.
And that was just the beginning of a magical day
for Harold and Genie thanks to royal treatment from the
French government. But first we head back to the war
and the Allied shuttle bombings that Terrence was supporting in
North d Africa and the Middle East. Eventually he ended
(20:03):
up doing the same in Russia. Terrence explains what shuttle
bombing was and how it worked.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
My final destination. I finally got my final flight to Russia,
to the Ukraine, to a town called Poltava, and we
set up what is known today and they don't know
this in the history books, that was called twenty four
hour shuttle bombing. It started in England. The B seventeen
(20:35):
bombers would take off from England. They would bomb the
Polasti oil fields in Romania which were under German control
and they were too far from England to get back.
They didn't have enough fuel, so they continued on to
Russia to the airfield where I was waiting for them.
(20:59):
They would land there. Yeah, they would spend six hours
there refueling, getting new bomb loads, taking care of themselves.
The wounded would be taken to hospitals. Then they would
take off, bomb the plus the oil fields again and
continue on to Italy where they did the same thing
(21:20):
and then flew back to England, all in a twenty
four hour period, and that was called twenty four hour
shuttle bombing.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
But shuttle bombing didn't last long from his position in Russia,
and Terrence almost didn't last very long either. Another questionable
decision left him close to death, but he managed to
pull through.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
It ended the twenty four hour shuttle bombing when our
planes were followed into Russia by German Messa Schmidt fighter planes.
And then the next night they came over and bombed
our air field. They destroyed my tent where I lived,
and I wasn't named. The mission was aborted. It ended
(22:07):
right there and there I developed this CENTERIO ended up
in then ePRO in a hospital where almost died. I
ended up going down to eighty eight pounds in a coma,
so I drank milk that I was warned not to drink,
(22:28):
that it was not pasteurized, and it made me very sick.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
The German surrendered to the Allies in Europe officially on
May eighth, nineteen forty five, although the surrender to the
US occurred a day earlier, on May ninth, nineteen forty five.
Relieved that the war was over, Terrence found himself utterly
shocked by his encounter with a German woman who showed
no change of heart at all by the end of
(22:52):
the fighting.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
The worst story I ever heard in the war had
nothing to do with wounds or anything. It happened that
day after the war ended. It happened May ninth, nineteen
forty five. The war ended May eighth, and everybody was
celebrating that night. Before we partied, everybody was drunk. I
(23:17):
didn't drink at the time, so I just served the
whiskey in the officers club till all the pilots, everybody
got smashed. They got wasted, everybody except me. And the
next morning they asked for volunteers to go to Germany
to bring back three prisoners of war, and I volunteered,
(23:39):
and I went on a B seventeen flying fortress, and
we landed in Munster, Germany, which was bombed in every
single day and night for almost seven months. I walked
along the streets there looking for free prisoners, and they
were all wandering aimless. They were emaciated. These little pilots
(24:04):
that were shot down just released. While I was gathering
these pillows together, a German woman came over to me
and asked me if i'd like a cup of tea,
and I said yes, so I would. And she took
me into her house and she couldn't speak English, just
a few words, and she poured the tea and lifted
(24:27):
her cup and she said Heil Hitler. And I had
never heard that before, and that shook me up terribly.
It sort of made me crazy. I lost control, and
I said to her, lady, you lost the war. The
(24:49):
war ended yesterday. It's over. The boat sank. Get used
to it. And I stormed out of that place or
all upset. And to this day, some nights I closed
my eyes and I think of that scene. I said
that I shouldn't have killed her, but the war was over.
(25:10):
It was a day later. I was very upset. I
never heard Heil Hitler before he was also dead Yell.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Harold Terrans returned to Normandy in the years that followed,
and was present for the ceremonies commemorating the seventy fifth
anniversary of D Day in twenty nineteen. He enthusiastically planned
to return in twenty twenty four, but something had changed
over those five years. Terrence was now in a deeply
committed romance with Genie Swirlin, and since he has his
(25:39):
own French connection, Terrence and Swirlen not only made the
trip to Normandy for the ceremonies at the beaches, they
made plans to tie the knot just a few miles away.
Swerlin was ninety six and Harold Terrence was a spry
one hundred years old.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I have friends at the French embassy down in Miami,
so general as a friend of mine, they recommended that
I get married.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Why not it?
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Normandy went on there on June sixth, so I said
the Genie. I got on one knee in the garage.
I said, you want to get married? She said sure.
We had the most magnificent wedding ever in caroonton Ley
my day in Normandy, which is about twenty twenty miles
(26:31):
from Omaha Beach. The mayor of the town, which is
part of history, like the most fierce fighting took place
during the Normandy invasion. More in Caronton, More books. I
have so many books about Caroonton and the mayor of Caroonton,
(26:52):
Je Jean Jacques Olona, married us. My little great granddaughter
of sixteen was the flower girl. All of Genie's children
were there, My children were there. My grand daughter, who
was that president of the a cappella group at University
(27:12):
of Pennsylvania sang Whitney Houston song.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
I Will Always Love You.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
It was one of the most beautiful wedding ceremonies.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
You love.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
My friend had twenty four bagpipers playing there as well,
and we had one of the greatest opera singers, Miss Liberty, singing.
And then we had a lunch and I had all
my French friends, my dear friends there, and then I
(27:44):
got a call from the head of protocol in Paris
that the President Macrone of France is inviting me and
Jennie that night to a state dinner at the Palace,
and Biden.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Was there, and I'm overwhelmed.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
It was the greatest day of my life to get
married in the morning and have the friends secret service
drive us three hours from Normandy to Paris to the
directed the Palace. And you have no idea what took
place there. You can't imagine. It was so exciting. We
(28:26):
were the guests Ubonna, Kings and queens and presidents and
prime ministers all stood up and applaud me and Jeanie
as we walked them. And we were in every newspaper
in the world that next morning. And I remember to
get your political affiliations. I remember sitting at the table
(28:51):
with his cabinet, the Ministry of Culture. I was sitting
with Genie in the former and ambassador to Washington. Some
man put his arms around me. He says, Harold, you.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
And Genie, at this very moment are.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
The most popular people in the entire world. You're in
every front page of every newspaper in the world. And
I wasn't after newspaper's home as far away as Mongolia.
And the man that put his arm around me was
our Secretary of State, Anthony Blincoln, who was a friend
of mine. I became friendly with the lady sitting next
(29:34):
to me. We held hands the whole night. She's very
prominent socialite in Paris. Her name is Michelle laminastral Ulrich
and she is the founder of the French Historical Society,
(29:57):
very very famous. And then my friendly ambassadors ask me
anybody else you want to see? I says, yeah, would
call a Bruni be here, call her Brunie. It was
my favorite friend's singer. She's married to a former president
of France, President Nicholas Sarkozy. She's the former girlfriend of
(30:19):
Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And she came running over to me and threw her
arms around me.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
I got her picture of her hugging me at the
at the dinner, at the stake dinner. Whoever thing thought
I'd be at the palace at a steak dinner and
have all. And then President Maccone toasted me and Jeanie
in French and in English, and Nancy Pelosi came running
(30:47):
over and threw around. She remembered me from five years prior,
and she sent me a hundred birthday Greennie. There's all
one day, my wedding in the State dinner, all in
one day. People don't experience that in their lifetime.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
It's clear that spending just a few minutes thinking back
to World War Two resurfaces some fascinating and painful memories.
For Harold Terrence. He wishes students were taught a lot
more about the war, and specifically about D Day, but
his memories always come back to those he served with,
many of whom were killed in service to their nation.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
First of all, it's unfortunate that most high school students
today do not know anything about D Day. They never
heard of normany. They don't even know much about World
War Two. I don't think much of it is taught
in history classes today, and it's unfortunate that they don't
(31:49):
know the history of their country and the suffering that
everybody went through. That fifty million people were killed because
of of the war, that over forty million were wounded,
that the suffering that went on in every country of
(32:10):
the world at the time.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
It was a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
And I have so many stories that I can tell
that me and myself, I was in three different hospitals
and three different countries. I'm lucky to be sitting here.
You need luck to be one hundred and one years old.
But two years I was in a war zone. Constantly
(32:36):
in a war zone. There was a very unpleasant experience.
Even though there was a lot of fun in games,
there's a lot of tragedy and suffering.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
That's Harold Terance. He's a US Army Air Corps veteran
of World War Two. He and his wife, Jeanie, made
worldwide headlines by getting married in Normandy on the eighties
anniversary of D Day in twenty twenty four. I'm Greg
Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg
(33:18):
Corumbus and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation
of the American Veterans Center. For more information, please visit
American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow the American
Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're at AVC update.
Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube channel for full
(33:40):
oral histories and special features, and of course, please subscribe
to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks again for listening, and please join us next time
for Veterans Chronicles
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.