Eureka soldier rehabs from injury suffered in Iraq

Joel Jacobs: 'Guess what, Ma? I can walk'

A Eureka High School graduate with family in Lakeside has begun walking again after losing his foot and lower leg after an accident in August in Iraq.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Joel G. Jacobs' mother, Barbara Fenchak of Lakeside, remembers the day he made a turnaround with a new prosthesis.

"On October 9th Joel called to say, 'Guess what, Ma? I can walk,'" Fenchak said. "A lot of people had been praying for him."

Fenchak recently contacted the Inter Lake to let the community know about his ordeal and recovery.

A 1984 Eureka graduate, Jacobs joined the Army right after high school. Fenchak said he wanted to see a little of the world while deciding what he wanted to do when he grew up.

The soldier ended up seeing a lot of the world while serving more than 20 years in the Army.

With expertise in removing land mines and unexploded ordnance, Jacobs worked the hottest military spots of the last two decades. In recent years, he served in Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Afghanistan and Iraq.