Remembering Lt. Col. Joe Jackson

Lt. Col. Joe Jackson was awarded the Medal of Honor in January 1969 by President Johnson for his heroic efforts during the Vietnam War at Kham Duc in May 1968. On May 12, Lt. Col. Jackson, an experienced pilot, maneuvered his C-123 into the middle of a hot landing zone to rescue a three-man Air Force Control team. Lt. Col. Jackson risked his own life, and that of his crew, while their plane was the target of North Vietnamese ground fire. The battle for Kham Duc, during the second phase of the 1968 Tet Offensive, proved to be one of the last times American forces held control of territory where they could do reconnaissance on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.