Staff photo / Raymond L. Smith Howard W. Jacobs, 77, of Vienna, displays the extensive collection of military medals he received while serving as a gunner on Helicopter Attack Light Squadron 3, known as HA(L)-3 Seawolves, which was the only helicopter attack squadron in naval history. He served during the Vietnam War.

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VIENNA — Howard W. Jacobs served nearly four years in the U.S. Navy, but never on a ship.

Instead, Jacobs, now 72, was a gunner on Helicopter Attack Light Squadron 3, known as HA(L)-3 Seawolves, which was the only helicopter attack squadron in naval history.

The volunteer squadron was formed in 1966 and was based in Binh Thuy, Vietnam. It was decommissioned in 1972.

“The people I served with during that time were closer to me than family,” Jacobs, a former Girard firefighter and Hubbard Township part-time police officer, said. “Family always should be on top of the list of people a person is closest to, but some of these people I served with are closer.”

His time with HA(L)-3 had such an impact on the veteran’s life that if his colleagues called for help, Jacobs said he would drop everything to do whatever is necessary to help them.

Jacobs joined the U.S. Navy through a delayed-entry program, even before graduating from Girard High School in 1969.

“I did not have the desire to go to college,” he said. “So I enlisted.”

At 19 years old, Jacobs knew that his father, William, had served during World War II in the Army under Gen. George S. Patton.

The teenager, an only child, had an interest in the military because of his father’s military background. He also was fascinated with flying after watching numerous movies featuring B-52 bombers. Jacobs admits he wanted to be a gunner, in part, so he could fly on the giant aircraft.

Deciding to join the Navy, Jacobs received his basic training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois. He was trained in aviation ordnance at the Jacksonville Naval Training Center.

“I learned to work on and maintain every type of military gun from a .38-caliber pistol to a 20mm cannon,”Jacobs said. “I was responsible for maintaining different types of weapon systems.”

It was while in aviation school that Jacobs and two other students volunteered to be assigned to the HA(L)-3 Squadron. The unit was the most decorated Naval unit in Vietnam.

Jacobs was sent to the Survival, Evade, Resist and Escape jungle survival school at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, Calif.

“They fed us in the morning, drove us to a place in the woods, made sure we would not have any food left in our pockets, and then told us we had to reach a certain location,” he said.

While they were on the course, members of the Navy’s elite SEAL team and other highly trained sailors attacked the trainees, firing blanks and setting traps for them to work through. Trainees that were captured were taken to POW camps, which were very similar to what they would experience under actual conditions if they were captured.

“They created conditions and did things that probably could not be done today,” Jacobs said. “They wanted us to be prepared for what it would be like if we were actually captured and held captive.”

Jacobs was trained to be a door gunner / crew chief on heavily armed Huey helicopter gunships. He was active on at least 616 missions.

“We went out on different types of missions, including recon missions, drop off people, extract Navy SEALs and sometimes to lay suppression fire,” he said. “Missions could last a few hours to all day.”

“We were in numerous firefights,” he said. “When we went out, I did not worry about the risk we were facing. I was focused. I had a job to protect the pilots and the other gunner at the door. My job was to do things to get us back to the base.

“We had to stay focused, so we can hit whatever target we needed to hit.”

Jacobs said the helicopters usually were packed with weapons and ammunition when they were sent on missions. However, the ship also could have had the weapons and ammo removed, so they could do insertions or extract people when necessary.

“You could get eight Navy SEALs on deck when necessary,” he said. “Our goal was to leave no one behind or die trying.”

Jacobs said he has never talked about some of the actions in which he participated because of their effect on him.

After Vietnam, Jacobs was assigned to the VAQ-133 unit stationed at Whidbey Island, Washington, which was an electronic warfare squadron with the EA6B Prowler aircraft.

The unit jammed enemy radar.

“I had the opportunity to fly in the rear seat behind the pilot,” he said.

At one time, Jacobs considered making the military a career.

“Being in the Navy — with that squadron — was life changing for me,” he said. “The people I served with became a family to me. I trusted my life with them. I knew we would die for one another.”

However, afterward, Jacobs returned home after a family member became ill with cancer. He had to help at his family-owned Dot-Less Cleaners in Girard.

He became a civilian firefighter at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna, and for 24 years was a Girard firefighter, retiring in 2003 as a captain. During his time with the fire department, Jacobs was an arson investigator and he also was an arson investigator with the Metro Arson Strike Force.

Later, after retiring from Girard, Jacobs was a patrolman with the Hubbard Township Police Department for six years.

Howard W. Jacobs

AGE: 72

RESIDENCE: Vienna

SERVICE BRANCH: U.S. Navy

MILITARY HONORS: National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with a star, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon, Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation, Gallantry Cross with palm, Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation Civil Actions with palm, Air Medal with numeral 27 designating the number of air strike awards, Gold Air Crew Wings, Combat Air Crew Wings and Air Warfare wings. He was inducted in the Enlisted Combat Air Crew Roll of Honor in 2005.

OCCUPATION: Retired fire captain with the Girard Fire Department.

FAMILY: Daughters, Jill Jacobs Steel and Lauren Jacobs Roscoe, with their husbands, and three grandchildren.