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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
Ryukyus Campaign (1945)/Battle of Okinawa
From Month/Year
April / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Description The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or tetsu no bufÅ« ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources, mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000–150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting on Okinawa.