On Veterans Day, remembering the bond of battle-tested brothers

Dave and Michael Jackson fought like typical brothers growing up, duking it out over all sorts of sibling rivalry stuff.

“I can remember my mother coming into the bedroom and breaking us up, hitting us with a broom,” Dave recalled this week.

That changed after they joined the Army and ended up fighting side by side in a tank regiment during the Vietnam War.

“As soon as I got there … all that stuff just went away. We just bonded immediately and we’ve been the same ever since, the best of friends,” Dave, 66, said Monday before Michael’s ashes were buried at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City.

Michael Lynn Jackson, a retired sergeant major, died Oct. 4 of a rare form of cancer. He was 68.

Only 17 pairs of brothers served in combat at the same time in the same unit during the Vietnam War, which spanned more than a decade and claimed more than 58,000 soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen before it ended in 1975.

The Jackson boys, who later lived in Gardnerville in Northern Nevada, were one of those rare twosomes, briefly fighting in 1968 from the same tank in the 1st Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment along Vietnam’s Highway 19 and guarding an Army Special Forces camp at Ben Het, near the Cambodia-Laos border.

Their captain put an end to that arrangement, saying “that’s probably not a good idea” because a rocket-propelled grenade or mortar fire could kill them both at the same time, leaving their parents without a sole surviving son.

But the captain wasn’t about to risk losing a skilled tank commander, so he solved the problem by assigning them to different tanks.

‘SWEATING BULLETS’

“So we were both tank commanders and we worked together everyday,” Dave said. “… Of all the things we went through, firefights, contact, it was great just knowing my brother was there.

“I still don’t have any doubt he was the reason why I wasn’t wounded” or killed in action.

Dave maintained his composure as he delivered a eulogy for his brother at Michael’s memorial service, until he talked about the weeks when his deployment had ended and his brother remained in harm’s way.

“I was sweating bullets until he got home,” he said, fighting back tears. “I feared that he would get killed before he got back.”

Michael’s family – widow Dorothy, daughter LeeAnne, son Donald, mother Mary and sisters Cynthia and Joanne – picked up the stateside part of Michael’s story before taking their seats in the front row at his service.

Dorothy Jackson said her husband was admired by soldiers wherever he went during his 24 years in the Army. His non-combat accomplishments included leading the University of Iowa ROTC program and the junior ROTC programs at Sparks and Galena high schools, where he also was a teacher.

His awards include four Army Commendation medals, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and two Vietnam Presidential Unit Citations.

“He changed everybody’s lives. … He put everybody first,” she said. “Even when he was a sergeant major he knew hundreds of men, where they lived, how many brothers and sisters they had. He took care of the single guys and I did whatever I could to help with the kids and the wives.”

FITTING EPITAPH

Their son, Donald, said he remembers his dad would stack boxes of food in the garage to hand out at Christmas to families of students he knew needed help where he worked at high schools.

“He picked out the children he knew were indigent or needed help and would go pass out food two or three hours a night for two or three weeks leading up to Christmas to make sure everybody had food,” he said.

Dorothy said he wanted her husband to be buried at the Southern Nevada veterans cemetery where her father, Theodore Donald “Ace” Kazear, a 30-year Marine, was laid to rest in 2006. He was in the Marines for 30 years.

“Military is in all of our families,” she said.

Dorothy said she didn’t know exactly what words to put on her husband’s tombstone, “so we put ‘Proud American.’ I tell everybody we live in this free country because of men like him.”

Dave said his brother was known by his students and family as “the fish whisperer,” because he “spent many hours fishing and a few hours golfing.”

He said he hopes everyone who has or had a family member who served in the military will pause on Veterans Day to remember his or her contribution.

“(It’s) a day to honor all the men and women in the United States who have served honorably, who have committed a portion of their life to serve their nation selflessly and have learned a lot of things that have benefited them in life,” he said.

Dave said he plans to take some time to remember his old tank mate.

“He’s probably the most honorable man I’ve ever known,” he said.

Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Find him on Twitter: @KeithRogers2