Press and Media
HM3 Russell "Doc Jake" Jacobson was a 20 year old Navy corpsman with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines. On March 16, 1967, on Hill 861 near Khe Sanh, he was wounded again and again while treating Marines under fire. He came home with a Purple Heart and carried those wounds for the rest of his life. Agent Orange took him in 2015. His son, Dave Jacobson of Plymouth, Massachusetts, is working to get him the Navy Cross he believes he earned. The Fire Swept Trail began as Dave's tribute to his father and has grown into a free archive where hundreds of families keep the stories of the Vietnam veterans they love.
Quick facts
- HM3 Russell Harold Jacobson Jr., U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman
- Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines
- Wounded March 16, 1967, Hill 861, First Battles of Khe Sanh
- Purple Heart
- Died January 9, 2015
- The name "Fire Swept Trail" comes from Edward Murphy's book The Hill Fights (2003), which describes Russell racing up and down the fire swept trail to pull casualties to safety
Story angles
- A son's effort to get his father the Navy Cross
- 26 letters from Gloucester 4th graders to a wounded corpsman in 1967, and finding those children today
- Christmas cards from Hue schoolgirls, and the search for them 60 years later
- A family archive that grew to hundreds of Vietnam veterans
- The 60th anniversary of Hill 861: March 16, 2027
In the News
- Stars and Stripes, "A hell of a soul", Linda F. Hersey, August 4, 2026
- Cape Cod Times, September 17, 2026
- Cape Cod Times video, "We had a wonderful life", September 23, 2026
- Plymouth Independent, "A son's quest to detail dad's bravery", Dave Kindy, May 2026
- Stubbornly Positive Heroes Series, "Russell Jacobson", Craig Grossi and Nora Parkington, June 26, 2026 (YouTube and podcast)
- Vietnam Veterans of America newsletter, May 2026
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund In Memory Honor Roll, inducted 2017
- Khe Sanh Veterans, Short Round 039
- Khe Sanh Veterans, Passages
Photos
Photos may be used with credit: Courtesy of the Jacobson family.
Contact
Dave Jacobson, dave@fireswepttrail.org
Follow the story:
- Facebook: Fire Swept Trail (10,000+ followers)
- Instagram: @thefireswept
- YouTube: @Thefireswepttrail
- X: @thefireswept