[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 84 (Friday, May 14, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E522]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING CAPTAIN PAUL JACOBS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. TOM McCLINTOCK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 14, 2021

  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the 
remarkable life story of an American hero, Captain Paul Jacobs who 
passed away this past December. Captain Paul Jacobs served six combat 
tours in Vietnam, though it was his last tour that forever enshrined 
him as leading one of the U.S. Navy's greatest humanitarian efforts.
  As U.S. forces began withdrawing from South Vietnam in late April 
1975, Captain Jacobs was then commanding the destroyer escort USS Kirk 
off the coast of Vietnam. To escape being captured by Communist North 
Vietnamese forces, South Vietnam helicopters loaded with refugees 
swarmed out toward the U.S. fleet. After hearing rumors that any South 
Vietnamese pilot captured by the North Vietnamese would be tortured, 
mutilated, and imprisoned, while their families would be made outcasts 
or worse, they fled desperately trying to escape that fate.
  Upon realizing this, Captain Jacobs offered his ship as a safe haven 
for the South Vietnamese refugees. Helicopters began arriving and all 
hands aboard the Kirk--including Captain Jacobs--pushed unloaded 
helicopters over the side to make room for incoming ones. In all, 12 
helicopters, packed with refugees, had landed on one of the Navy's 
smallest warships. Captain Jacobs then transformed the Kirk into a 
humanitarian aid station, providing food, comfort, medical care, relief 
from a blazing sun and hope to the men, women and children they'd 
rescued. It is no exaggeration to credit Captain Jacobs' steadfast 
leadership in the face of such hardship for saving the lives of those 
30,000-plus Vietnamese sailors and refugees.
  The United States Navy has a proud tradition of courageous, 
competent, indefatigable, and independent ship captains, who fear not 
what lies over the horizon, and who earn the respect and fidelity of 
their crews through their fair and steadfast leadership. Such will be 
Captain Paul Jacobs' legacy. In California's Fourth Congressional 
District and in Captain Jacob's childhood hometown in Maine, we share 
profound grief over his passing.
  And so today, I rise to bid Captain Paul Jacobs--the United States 
Navy's most revered humanitarian--farewell. May he always have fair 
winds and following seas.

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