Truckload Authority - Fall 2015

W i t h j a c k j a c o b s
No Higher
Calling
By Lyndon Finney
Jack Jacobs briskly approached the podium.
Once nestled in place behind the lectern, he virtually disappeared save for his head, reminiscent of the days 47 years
ago when he was wading through the Mekong River in Vietnam with water up to his neck.
His tuxedo covered the scars of hand-to-hand combat against an enemy who in retrospect probably had more will to
win than the South Vietnamese, the very army that Jacobs and thousands of others like him had gone to support in an
effort to thwart the spread of communism.
And as his face appeared over the lectern, it was hard to see what remained of the scars he suffered when shrapnel
pierced his face and skull during a fire fight with the Viet Cong in March 1968.
“I’m delighted to be here, although at my age, I’m delighted to be anywhere,” Jacobs told the audience of trucking
industry stakeholders assembled for the third annual Truckload Carriers Association Wreaths Across America Charitable
Gala. “It’s very disconcerting to be behind an opaque lectern because I’m pretty well convinced nobody can see me at
all.”
He continued to poke fun at himself and his just a little less than 5-foot-4-inch frame.
“When I told everybody back in my hometown I was going to join the Army, they said, ‘You shouldn’t join the
Army, it’s for adult-sized human beings.’”
Holding his fingers an inch apart, he continued. “Of course when all the shrapnel and bullets start flying around,
16 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2015