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Contact Info
Home Town Brooklyn
Last Address Kensington, MD
Date of Passing Jan 13, 2011
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Bruce Jacobs, 85, a veteran of three wars who in 1985 retired from the Army at the rank of major general and became a top official of the National Guard Association of the United States, died Jan. 13 at his home in Kensington. He had myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone marrow disorder.
Gen. Jacobs joined the Army during World War II and served in the Pacific. He spent the next four decades in active and reserve duty and service in the Army National Guard, and many assignments focused on public affairs work. He was a Korean War veteran and went to Vietnam in the late 1960s as a special National Guard liaison officer.
In retirement, he spent 10 years with the National Guard Association, whose magazine he edited. He also served as executive director of the Historical Society of the Militia and National Guard, now called the National Guard Educational Foundation. He wrote several books of military history.
Gen. Jacobs was a native of Brooklyn. N.Y., and a graduate of New York University. He received a master's degree in diplomatic history from Georgetown University. He also was a graduate of the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pa.
He was a past president of the Army and Navy Club in Washington, served on the National Battlefields Commission and played a key role in the creation of the memorial in Vierville, France, commemorating the National Guard's role in the invasion of Normandy. His decorations included the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.His wife of 62 years, Shirley Klein Jacobs, died in 2009. Survivors include three children, Louisa Yates of Healdsburg, Calif., Martha Schilling of Edison, N.J., and Philip Jacobs of Bethesda; a sister; and four grandchildren.
Other Comments:
JACOBS--Bruce, Maj. Gen., 85, the first Historian Emeritus of the National Guard and the author or editor of books and articles on military history subjects, died after a long illness on January 13, 2011 at his home in Kensington, MD. He retired in 1985 after 42 years of active, Guard and reserve service. His honors included the Army Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Army General Staff Identification Badge.
He was a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor. A native of Brooklyn, NY, and '42 graduate of Boys High, General Jacobs later lived in Park Ridge, NJ, and in Cleveland, OH before he and his wife settled in Alexandria, VA in 1971. He attended New York University and received a master's degree in diplomatic history from Georgetown University. Beloved husband to the late Shirley Klein Jacobs for over 62 years, he is also survived by two daughters, Louisa Yates of Healdsburg, CA (Richard), and Martha Schilling of Edison, NJ and a son, Philip H. Jacobs, of Bethesda, MD (Marjorie) and four grand-children. Burial, with full military honors, will be at Arlington National Cemetery
Western Pacific Campaign (1944-45)/Battle of Iwo Jima
From Month/Year
February / 1945
To Month/Year
March / 1945
Description The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945), or Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the entire island, including its three airfields (including South Field and Central Field), to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands. This five-week battle comprised some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II.
After the heavy losses incurred in the battle, the strategic value of the island became controversial. It was useless to the U.S. Army as a staging base and useless to the U.S. Navy as a fleet base.
The Imperial Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with a dense network of bunkers, hidden artillery positions, and 18 km (11 mi) of underground tunnels.[5][6] The Americans on the ground were supported by extensive naval artillery and complete air supremacy over Iwo Jima from the beginning of the battle by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviators.
Iwo Jima was the only battle by the U.S. Marine Corps in which the overall American casualties (killed and wounded) exceeded those of the Japanese,[8] although Japanese combat deaths were thrice those of the Americans throughout the battle. Of the 22,000 Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima at the beginning of the battle, only 216 were taken prisoner, some of whom were captured because they had been knocked unconscious or otherwise disabled.[1] The majority of the remainder were killed in action, although it has been estimated that as many as 3,000 continued to resist within the various cave systems for many days afterwards, eventually succumbing to their injuries or surrendering weeks later.
Despite the bloody fighting and severe casualties on both sides, the Japanese defeat was assured from the start. Overwhelming American superiority in arms and numbers as well as complete control of air power — coupled with the impossibility of Japanese retreat or reinforcement — permitted no plausible circumstance in which the Americans could have lost the battle.
The battle was immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the raising of the U.S. flag on top of the 166 m (545 ft) Mount Suribachi by five U.S. Marines and one U.S. Navy battlefield Hospital Corpsman. The photograph records the second flag-raising on the mountain, both of which took place on the fifth day of the 35-day battle. Rosenthal's photograph promptly became an indelible icon — of that battle, of that war in the Pacific, and of the Marine Corps itself — and has been widely reproduced.