100-year-old World War II veteran plans wedding where US troops once landed

DHe 100-year-old Harold Terens and his 96-year-old fiancée Jeanne Swerlin want to get married in June this year. The date falls on D-Day. In 1944, US troops landed here in Normandy, France. They tell their story in an interview with the Associated Press (AP) news agency.

The World War II veteran was deployed for the USA during World War II. In 1942 he reported for military service and a year later was posted to Great Britain as a radio technician. On June 6, 1944 – the so-called D-Day – he helped repair aircraft returning from France and getting them ready for combat again. Later, as a 20-year-old noncommissioned officer in the US Army Air, he was in France for the first time. His fiancée Jeanne Swerlin was in America during this time and attended high school. Both grew up in New York City: she in Brooklyn, he in the Bronx. Today they live together in Florida.

Teren’s fourth D-Day celebration

Terens will be honored by the French in June during celebrations of the 80th anniversary of their country’s liberation from the Nazis. This is the fourth D-Day celebration for the 100-year-old, who is called “Bobo” by friends. He last received a medal from French President Emmanuel Macron five years ago.

Then the wedding bells will ring. In Carentan-les-Marais, the senior couple will be married by the mayor in a 16th century chapel on June 8th. The two have been a couple since 2021. He married his wife Thelma in 1948, with whom he had two daughters and a son. Thelma died in 2018 after 70 years of marriage. “Bobo” brings eight grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren with him to his new marriage. Swerlin married at 21 and was a full-time mother to two girls and a boy before becoming widowed at 40. Her second husband died after 18 years of marriage. Her last partner died in 2019. She has seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

His secret: “Positivity and love”

“I love this girl – she is very special,” Terens said in the interview. To demonstrate their love of dancing, they had Siri play “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars and jumped and danced like teenagers. “He’s a great guy, great,” Swerlin said. “He loves me so much and he says it.” “Bobo” celebrated his 100th birthday in August 2023 on Lake Worth Beach in Florida. At the time, he said that “positivity and love” were the secrets of his long life.

According to the American government, of the 16 million US soldiers from World War II, only 120,000 are still alive. The World War II veteran said his pilots from back then all died in the war. “I loved all those guys. Young men. The average age was 26,” he said. After the Nazis surrendered in May 1945, the then 22-year-old again helped transport released Allied prisoners to England before returning to the USA a month later.