Army Col. Jack Howard Jacobs was just a first
lieutenant when he saved more than a dozen lives during an intense
firefight in the swamplands of Vietnam. His actions during that incident
and throughout his deployment made him one of the most decorated
soldiers of the war, including the nation's highest medal for valor.
Jacobs was born Aug. 2, 1945, in Brooklyn, New York, to Rebecca and
David Jacobs, a World War II veteran. He had a brother and a sister.
The family lived in Queens for a time before they moved to
Woodbridge, New Jersey, in the mid-1950s, when Jacobs was in sixth
grade. He loved baseball and was focused on his academics.
After graduating from Woodbridge High School, Jacobs attended Rutgers
University, where he earned a bachelor's degree. During his studies, he
married a woman named Karen, and they went on to have two children.
Jacobs also took part in the school's ROTC program. After graduating
in 1966, he was immediately commissioned into the Regular Army as a
second lieutenant assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division.
However, when his unit, the 3rd Brigade, was ordered to deploy to
Vietnam in September 1967, he received separate orders to serve as an
advisor for Vietnamese infantry battalions. In a 2002 Library of
Congress Veterans History Project interview, Jacobs said he was selected
for the role because of his college degree. He petitioned to go with
his unit instead, but his request was denied.
Prior to his deployment, Jacobs spent 13 weeks learning Vietnamese and
the country's culture — lessons he said proved extremely useful when he
arrived as the assistant battalion advisor for a South Vietnamese army
battalion.
Jacobs said the first few months of his deployment were spent
conducting many patrols, and at first, they made very little contact
with the enemy. But that all changed after the Tet Offensive kicked off in late January 1968.
By March 9, 1968, Jacobs' battalion was part of an operation in the
flat swamplands and rice paddies of Kien Phong Province in the Mekong
Delta, near the Cambodian border.
"We received some intel that the enemy was probably going to be
located in a specific place, so they mounted an operation that included
my battalion attacking from boats over what passed for a beach — it was
actually a riverbank," Jacobs said in his 2002 interview.
But as his battalion advanced, it came under intense mortar and
machine gun fire from a massive Viet Cong presence that was positioned
in well-fortified bunkers. Jacobs' battalion tried to get into an attack
formation, but they were halted by more devastating enemy fire. Jacobs,
who was with the command element of the company in the front, quickly
called for and directed airstrikes onto the enemy.
"We were caught in the middle of this ambush," he said. "A lot of people were killed and wounded."
The intense enemy fire caused heavy casualties to the command group,
including injuring the company commander. Jacobs himself had suffered a
head wound that impaired his vision, but he quickly assumed command,
ordering the soldiers to withdraw to somewhere more covered where they
could set up a defensive perimeter.
With no regard for his own safety, Jacobs returned to the open area
despite the intense enemy fire to evacuate a seriously wounded advisor.
He managed to get the man to a wooded area where he administered
lifesaving first aid. Jacobs then returned to the fire-strewn area to
evacuate his wounded company commander.
"The enemy had come out from its positions and were killing the
wounded and taking weapons," Jacobs said. So, he continued his mission,
dodging bullets to make repeated trips across open rice paddies to
evacuate more wounded and their weapons. Three times, he was able to
drive off squads of Viet Cong, singlehandedly killing three enemy
combatants and wounding several others.
"When I finally had my wits about me, I decided I would go along the
tree line myself … and be able to engage them effectively, because they
were looking in another direction," Jacobs told the VHP. "Eventually, I
sat down in a wooded area and physically couldn't get up."
Jacobs was evacuated to a hospital, but not before he'd saved the
lives of one U.S. advisor and 13 Vietnamese soldiers. Thanks to his
actions, the South Vietnamese company he was with reorganized and fended
off the enemy forces.
When Jacobs recovered and returned to the U.S., he served as a
company commander at Fort Benning, Georgia. That's where he learned he
had been nominated for the Medal of Honor — a commendation that left him
"stupefied" and "astounded."
On Oct. 9, 1969, then-Capt. Jacobs received the nation's highest
medal for valor from President Richard M. Nixon during a White House
ceremony. He'd also earned three Bronze Stars and two Silver Stars
during his deployment, making him one of the most decorated soldiers of
the war.
Jacobs continued his military career. The Army sent him back to
Rutgers to get a master's degree in international relations and
comparative politics, a subject he later taught at the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point.
Jacobs voluntarily returned to Vietnam for another deployment in July
1972, continuing his role as an advisor, this time for the 1st
Vietnamese Airborne Battalion. He returned to the U.S. in January 1973
after suffering minor injuries from an artillery round.
From there, Jacobs worked his way up the ranks, eventually commanding
his own battalion in Panama in the early 1980s. He went on to teach at
the National War College in Washington before retiring as a colonel in
1987 after 21 years of service.
In his 2002 VHP interview, Jacobs said he thinks the medal makes its recipients modest.
"I think everybody who receives the Medal of Honor receives it in his
heart for all the soldiers with whom he served," he said. "Receiving
the award has made me a different person — [it's] made me a better
person, a more thoughtful person."
In regard to his Medal of Honor actions, Jacobs also reflected, "I
hope that if I had it to do all over again, knowing what I know now,
that I would have the fortitude to do it again."
After retirement, Jacobs worked in investment banking and real estate
development, and he also served as a military analyst for NBC News. He
currently serves as an advisor for the Code of Support Foundation, a
nonprofit that provides assistance to veterans and military families.
In 2008, Jacobs published a memoir, "If Not Now, When? Duty and
Sacrifice in America's Time of Need." In 2020, he was inducted into the
Army ROTC Hall of Fame.
Jacobs divorced but eventually remarried a woman named Susan, and
they had a son. The couple currently lives in Far Hills, New Jersey.
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