Rank: Staff Sergeant
Unit: K Troop, 3rd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 13C – Automated Fire Support Systems Specialist
Awards: Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Unit awards: Meritorious Unit Citation, Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Enlisted by: Regular
Date of birth: 27-Nov-2029
Hometown: Seaside, California
Marital status: Married to Ruby R. Jackson, two sons, two daughters
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 23-Jan-1964
Start of tour: 30-Nov-1966
Incident date: 21-May-1967
Date of casualty: 21-May-1967
Age at death: 37
Cause of death: Hostile, died. Grenade. Multiple fragmentation wounds.
James Albert Jackson was a passenger on a military vehicle on escort mission when engaged hostile force.
Seventeen Blackhorse troopers died in this incident:
SP5 William Phillip Centers Jr
SGT Eugene Harold Dickinson
PVT Jerry Lee Houser
SP4 Toler Lee Hutchins Jr
SP4 Phillip Earl Ireland
SSG James Albert Jackson
SGT Alfred Lee
PFC Patrick Michael Loisel
SP4 Henry David McInnis
SP4 James David McWhorter
SP4 Anthony Wilfred Roybal
PFC Rodolfo Andres Saenz
SSG Walter Stephen Simpson
PFC William Charles Stanley
SP4 James Thomas Steighner
SP4 Dwight Elmer Timberlake
SP4 Larry Allen Williamson
Location of fatality: Long Khanh, South Vietnam, YT 564 054
Place of interment: Grove Island African Methodist Episcopal Cemetery, Teague, Texas, USA
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BRONZE STAR MEDAL
WITH VALOR DEVICE
POSTHUMOUS
STAFF SERGEANT JAMES ALBERT JACKSON
21 MAY 1967
K TROOP, 3rd SQUADRON
11TH ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT
Staff Sergeant Jackson distinguished himself by valorous actions on 21 May 1967, while serving as Troop Motor Sergeant on an armored vehicle during a fierce encounter with the enemy on Route 1 near Soui Cat, Vietnam. As the armored convoy moved down a narrow road bordered on both sides with sparce brush and slight vegetation, it suddenly came under a murderous volume of recoilless rifle and automatic weapons fire from a numerically superior Viet Cong force. It was during the immediate burst of insurgent fire that the vehicle in which Sergeant Jackson was riding was struck by a recoilless rifle round setting it on fire and hurling the occupants to the ground. Although wounded seriously in the action, Sergeant Jackson took up a defensive position beside the vehicle and leveled suppressive fire on the attacking enemy. Without regard for personal safety and fully realizing the perils of the situation, Sergeant Jackson bravely positioned himself between the insurgents and a wounded comrade. It was in this blocking position that Sergeant Jackson was struck by hostile fire and mortally wounded. Staff Sergeant Jackson’s personal bravery and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest tradition of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
Headquarters, 9th Infantry Division General Orders No. 1930 (27 June 1967)