Local Korean War vet returns home after Honor Flight trip
When Don Jake Jacobson climbed off Delta Flight 133 on Sunday afternoon, he was greeted by a welcome party far bigger than anyone else’s.
A dozen friends and family had come to the airport to welcome Jacobson home from his trip to Washington, D.C., where he had gone for a weekend trip sponsored by the Ohio-based Honor Flight Network. The kids were all waving tiny American flags and everyone was eager to hear about his trip.
Jacobson is a veteran of the Korean War, and now one of over 200,000 veterans that have gotten trips to Washington from the Honor Flight Network.
He left on Friday from Glacier Park International Airport and arrived in Baltimore on Friday night. They spent the whole day Saturday touring D.C., including a stop at the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall.
The organization pays for everything, and Jacobson was even allowed to bring a companion. He brought his son along and his daughters surprised him by meeting the two of them in D.C. as well.
While there, Jacobson said they had a police escort to get the buses everywhere they were trying to go, and at one stop he even got to meet Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. Jacobson said it was a great trip, but he was happy to be back home in the Flathead.
“This is an incredible thing that this honor flight does for these veterans,” said Carla Allen, Jacobson’s companion and the one who nominated him for the Honor Flight program. “Its really a nice thing.”
When Jacobson was serving, he was involved in the decisive Battle of Chosin Reservoir. The battle took place over 17 days between late November and early December in 1950, soon after Mao Zedong’s People’s Republic of China had entered the conflict.
In the brutally cold campaign, about 15,000 American troops from the First Marine Division and some U.S. Army troops were outnumbered by approximately four times as many Chinese troops. The American forces had been part of a United Nations effort led by General Douglas MacArthur that had landed at the Port of Inchon with the hope of recapturing Seoul, the South Korean capitol.
The outnumbered United Nations troops managed to fight there way 78 miles to nearby Chosin Reservoir, where ships arrived to carry them to safety. They were later nicknamed the “Chosin few,” a cadre of Americans which Jacobson calls himself a member. The extended battle is now frequently cited in training exercises for troops and military history courses.
Earl Morse came up the original concept for the Honor Flight Network back in 2004, when he realized that many of the veterans new memorials in Washington, D.C. were being built to honor would never get the chance to witness them in person, largely due to financial reasons.
He drafted pilots who volunteered to fly vets out there to help them, and since then the organization has grown and changed. Today, the veterans fly on commercial flights, are escorted about the city and put up with room and board for two nights and one full day before returning home.
More information about the Honor Flight Network can be found at www.honorflightnetwork.org.
Reporter Peregrine Frissell can be reached at 758-4438 or pfrissell@dailyinterlake.com.