Medal of Honor recipient speaks to Civil Air Patrol group

Published Nov. 6, 2009
By Carl Bergquist
Air University Public Affairs

MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- At the recent Civil Air Patrol National Staff College, retired Army Col. Jack Jacobs emerged as one of the speakers who mentored and entertained the audience with his home-spun humor regarding his story and experiences.

"It's great to be here today, but then at my age, it's great to be anywhere," he told those attending CAP NSC at Maxwell's Squadron Officer College, Oct. 22.

At 5 feet 4 inches tall, much of Colonel Jacobs' humor is aimed at himself and his height. He told the audience there is a definite advantage to being short when in combat.
"In firefights the enemy is shooting at you, and everyone around you is trying to be one inch tall. I don't know how tall people survive combat, and had I been two inches taller, I would probably be dead," the colonel said, making reference to a head wound he received in Vietnam. "And, when I'm flying commercially, it's great. I don't have to fly first class. They just put me in one of those Chihuahua cartons, and I'm off."

But, there is another side to Colonel Jacobs that tends to set him apart from many other speakers. On Oct. 9, 1969, then President Richard Nixon pinned the Medal of Honor on him for his valor and heroism at Kien Phong Province, Republic of Vietnam, in March 1968.

Serving in Vietnam as an assistant battalion adviser to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, then Lieutenant Jacobs, though seriously wounded, repeatedly braved intense enemy machine gun and mortar fire to rescue 13 Vietnamese soldiers and another U.S. adviser. It wasn't until he was transported to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital that he learned the true extent of his injury. Shrapnel from a mortar round exploding near him had sliced off part of the top of his head.

While there is little humor in the wounds Colonel Jacobs suffered, he interjects humor when telling the story of his treatment and recovery.

"When I was lying on a gurney at the MASH, I remember seeing the largest nurse I had ever seen. She had to be six feet tall and weighed in at 220 pounds, and she was coming towards me, and that was scary," he said. "Then she got to me and said, 'And, what's wrong with you?' I just looked at her and said, 'There's nothing wrong with me. I've just got a little headache, so if you will give me an aspirin, I'll be on my way.'"

Colonel Jacobs said a doctor later showed up to examine him, and the doctor was astonished.

"He takes one look at me and says, 'Wow, I've never seen that before.' Well, that's not what you want to hear when you're on the gurney," he said. "I asked him what hadn't he seen before, and he replied that he had to go get everyone else to see this. He came back with all these people, some of them had cameras and were taking pictures of me, and he later informed me that my face had collapsed, but not to worry, he could handle it."

The colonel said he wasn't too happy with the news about his face, but several days later the doctor returned, said everything was going well and gave Colonel Jacobs a mirror so he could see what his face now looked like.

"I looked in the mirror and was pleased with what I saw. My face was still bad but looked a whole lot better than it had looked," the colonel said. "I told him, 'You must be the world's best plastic surgeon.' His reply was, 'Plastic surgeon? I was drafted six months ago, and I'm a gynecologist.'"

Colonel Jacobs said the Medal of Honor was signed into law in 1861 by President Abraham Lincoln, and about 3,500 medals have been presented to military members. When asked by a CAP member why there had not been more MOHs presented, the colonel said he wasn't sure.

"No one living has received the Medal of Honor since Vietnam, and I don't really know the answer to your question," he told the CAP members. "It might be that we are now fighting a different kind of war than we fought in the past. You don't see the hand-to-hand, almost continuous combat seen in the past, so the opportunity to qualify for the medal doesn't occur as frequently. But maybe, at the end of the day, the decision to give the Medal of Honor is subjective on the part of the person presenting it."

Following retirement from the Army, Colonel Jacobs became an investment banker and entrepreneur. He now speaks to many organizations and groups about his experiences and is regularly a military expert on several network television news channels.