At 102, D-Day veteran looks forward to a long-delayed bar mitzvah

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Harold Terens fought in World War II. He's lived almost 102 years, celebrating his birthday a couple weeks early with family and friends in Florida. But he has something more to look forward to.

His bar mitzvah.

Terens said at his birthday celebration Saturday that his brother got the traditional Jewish ceremony marking the beginning of adulthood when they were kids living in New York, but he did not.

“My mother came from Poland. My father came from Russia. And my mother was a religious Jew. And my father was anti-religious. So they had two sons. And one son, they compromised. One son got bar mitzvahed, the other son didn’t," he said.

Early next year, Terens said he will finally enjoy that ceremony. At the Pentagon outside Washington, no less. Terens said that came about when he was talking with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on a TV panel and a rabbi overheard the conversation.

"I mentioned that I would like to be bar mitzvahed at 103 and he’s the rabbi of the Pentagon so that’s my next bucket list. I am going to be bar mitzvahed in the Pentagon,” Terens said.

Terens turns 102 on Aug. 6. So Saturday's party was a little early.

On D-Day — June 6, 1944 — Terens helped repair planes returning from France so they could rejoin the battle. He said half his company’s pilots died that day. Terens went to France 12 days later, helping transport freshly captured Germans and just-freed American POWs back to England.

Terens was honored in June 2024 by the French as part of the 80th anniversary celebration of their country’s liberation from the Nazis. But that isn't all that happened on those Normandy beaches.

He married Jeanne Swerlin, now 97.

“I thought my wedding in Normandy last year was the highlight of my life. Number one of all the moments of my life. You know, that’s the saying, that life is not measured by how many breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away," Terens said.

He survived World War ll, was involved in a secret mission in Iran, another time barely escaping a German rocket after leaving a London pub just before it was destroyed.

"My life has been one huge fairy tale, especially with this new wife that I have. Who I love deeply and who I am going to spend the rest of my life till death do us part, as the mayor had us say in Normandy,” Terens said.

After the German surrender in 1945, Terens helped transport freed Allied prisoners to England before he shipped back to the U.S. a month later.

He married his wife Thelma in 1948 and they had two daughters and a son. He became a U.S. vice president for a British conglomerate. They moved from New York to Florida in 2006 after Thelma retired as a French teacher; she died in 2018 after 70 years of marriage. He has eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Terens gets asked a lot about his secret to longevity.

"I think if you can learn how to minimize stress, you’ll go a long way. You’ll add at least 10 years to your life. So that is number one. And 90% is luck,” he said.

Harold Terens, a World War II veteran who fought in D-Day, speaks to friends during his 102 birthday party Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Delray Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Harold Terens, a World War II veteran who fought in D-Day, greets friends at his 102 birthday party Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Delray Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Tyler Terens kisses his grandfather Harold Terens, a World War II veteran who fought in D-Day. after speaking at his 102 birthday party, Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Delray Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Harold Terens, a World War II veteran who fought in D-Day, dances with his wife Jeanne Swerlin during his 102 birthday party Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Delray Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Harold Terens gifts customized hats to his great grandchildren during his 102 birthday party Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Delray Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — For several weeks, international journalists and camera crews have been scurrying up to people in Greenland's capital to ask them for their thoughts on the twists and turns of a political crisis that has turned the Arctic island into a geopolitical hot spot.

President Donald Trump insists he wants to control Greenland but Greenlanders say it is not for sale. The island is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark and the prime minister of that country has warned that if the U.S. tries to take Greenland by force, it could potentially spell the end of NATO.

Greenlanders walking along the small central shopping street of the capital Nuuk have a hard time avoiding the signs that the island is near the top of the Western news agenda.

Scores of journalists have arrived from outlets including The Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, the BBC and Al Jazeera as well as from Scandinavian countries and Japan.

They film Nuuk's multicolored houses, the snowcapped hills and the freezing fjords where locals go out in small boats to hunt seals and fish. But they must try to cram their filming into about five hours of daylight — the island is in the far north and the sun rises after 11 a.m. and sets around 4 p.m.

Along the quiet shopping street, journalists stand every few meters (feet), approaching locals for their thoughts, doing live broadcasts or recording stand-ups.

Local politicians and community leaders say they are overwhelmed with interview requests.

Juno Berthelsen, MP for the Naleraq opposition party that campaigns for independence in the Greenlandic parliament, called the media attention “round two,” referring to an earlier burst of global interest following Trump's first statements in 2025 that he wanted to control Greenland.

Trump has argued repeatedly that the U.S. needs control of Greenland for its national security. He has sought to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals.

Berthelsen said he has done multiple interviews a day for two weeks.

“I'm getting a bit used to it,” he said.

Greenland's population is around 57,000 people —- about 20,000 of whom live in Nuuk.

“We’re very few people and people tend to get tired when more and more journalists ask the same questions again and again,” Berthelsen said.

Nuuk is so small that the same business owners are approached repeatedly by different news organizations — sometimes doing up to 14 interviews a day.

Locals who spoke to the AP said they want the world to know that it's up to Greenlanders to decide their own future and suggested they are perplexed at Trump's desire to control the island.

“It’s just weird how obsessed he is with Greenland,” said Maya Martinsen, 21.

She said Trump is “basically lying about what he wants out of Greenland,” and is using the pretext of boosting American security as a way to try to take control of “the oils and minerals that we have that are untouched.”

The Americans, Martinsen said, “only see what they can get out of Greenland and not what it actually is.”

To Greenlanders, she said, “it's home.”

“It has beautiful nature and lovely people. It’s just home to me. I think the Americans just see some kind of business trade.”

Kwiyeon Ha contributed to this report.

A journalist films in Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Burrows)

An AP journalist films people sitting by the sea in Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Burrows)

A journalist conducts an interview in Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Burrows)