Jack H. Jacobs

Jack Howard Jacobs (born August 2, 1945) is a retired colonel in the United States Army who received the Medal of Honor for his actions as an infantry advisor during the Vietnam War. Jacobs entered the Army through the Rutgers University ROTC program in 1966 and served two combat tours in Vietnam, during which he was wounded twice and earned multiple decorations for valor, including two Silver Stars, three Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts, in addition to the Medal of Honor. On March 9, 1968, while serving as assistant battalion advisor to a South Vietnamese infantry unit in Kien Phong Province, Jacobs assumed command after the senior advisor and company commander were wounded in an enemy ambush; despite his own injuries from mortar fragments that impaired his vision, he organized the defense, made repeated trips under fire to evacuate casualties—including a U.S. advisor and 13 allied soldiers—and directed counterattacks that repelled the Viet Cong assault, restoring the unit's combat effectiveness. The Medal of Honor was presented to him on October 9, 1969, by President Richard M. Nixon at the White House. Following over two decades of service, including paratrooper assignments with the 82nd Airborne Division and command roles in the 7th and 10th Infantry Divisions, Jacobs retired as a colonel in 1987 and pursued a career in investment banking.

Jack H. Jacobs was born on August 2, 1945, in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family shortly before the end of World War II. His father, an electrical engineer who had enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in the South Pacific theater—including campaigns in New Guinea and the Philippines—returned home after the war to work at Western Electric. Jacobs' parents, both from Brooklyn, had met at a party and married in 1942, navigating wartime separations and postwar housing shortages that left the family in modest circumstances.

The family heritage traced to paternal grandparents from Greece and maternal grandparents from Eastern Europe, reflecting a blend of Jewish immigrant backgrounds from regions including Poland and Romania. Jacobs had two younger siblings: a sister born approximately 2.5 years after him, who later resided in Demarest, New Jersey, and a brother born 10 years later, who settled in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. The family described itself as stable, with the father's military service providing early exposure to stories of combat that Jacobs later reflected upon, though these influences emerged more prominently in his adulthood.

Jacobs' early childhood unfolded amid frequent relocations driven by postwar urban challenges. Initially living in a Quonset hut near LaGuardia Airport in New York City, the family moved to public housing projects in Queens around 1950–1951 before relocating to Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, in the mid-1950s, where Jacobs was raised and attended Woodbridge High School. These transitions occurred against a backdrop of economic recovery and suburban migration typical for working-class Jewish families in the era, shaping a formative environment marked by resilience rather than privilege.