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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
WWII - Asiatic-Pacific Theater
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.
21 Named Campaigns were recognized in the Asiatic Pacific Theater with Battle Streamers and Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medals.