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Les Jacoby

Les Jacoby

Photo taken in Pusan,Korea, 1947 (19 years old )

Les (Lester A.) Jacoby was born on a farm near Wabasha, Minnesota, on May 7, 1928. He is theeldest of eleven children (seven girls; four boys), graduated from St. Felix High School in

Wabasha in 1945, and then worked for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroadbefore his U.S. Army service.

Army service, after Infantry basic at Ft. McClellan, Alabama, took him to Korea for 19 1/2months in the 1946-48 Korean occupation period. He served with United States Army MilitaryGovernment In Korea (USAMGIK), 30th Transportation Corps, Traffic Regulation Group (30th TC,TRG), and the 790th Transportation Railroad OperatingBattalion (790th TROB). With the latter group, he was a19-year old Sgt. operating steam locomotives during acrisis period. Among the locomotives he operated wasU.S. Army General Pershing No. 101, which served in threewars, and is now one of the "treasures" at the NationalRailroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Les returned to civilian life and enrolled at the Collegeof St. Thomas (now University of St. Thomas ) in St.Paul, Minnesota, under the G.I. Bill. He was recalled for

military service in the Korean War, as he enrolled for his Junior year, reported to FortEustis, Virginia, and then was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland, to work with Baltimore andOhio Railroad civilian personnel in Baltimore for several months learning how to operate

diesel locomotives. He was then qualified to be both a military steam and dieselrailroad locomotive engineer.

He was assigned to the 724th TROB for shipment to Korea in the Spring of 1951. Thirty-nine specially built U.S. Army GM V-8800 hsp. diesels were sent over to replace rolling stock that had been destroyed. Les was slated to play a key role withthe operating crews. However, before the diesels arrived by ship, he was requested by the CO of all military railoperations in Korea, the 3rd Transportation Military Railway Service (3rd TMRS), to establish a teletype switchboard and

message center operation in a proposed 3rd TMRS Advance Headquarters in Seoul. (Les had served with the CO during theirprevious service in Korea.)

As the front lines stabilized in later 1951, the main headquarters in Taegu moved north to jointhe small force that had established advance headquarters in badly war damaged Seoul. Lesrotated back to the States in late 1951, resumed his Junior year in college in early 1952, andgraduated in 1954.

The years since were spent in the financial field in Detroit, and predominantly Minneapolis.

Les, wife Beverly, and high school age only child Jeanne, moved to the warmer climes of CorpusChristi, Texas, in 1983. Unfortunately Beverly died in 1993, as Jeanne was starting her lastyear of law school. Currently Les is the proud grandfather of two grandsons.

Les Jacoby- 1999 service history submitted to National Railroad Museum

pg 1 pg 2Service History -1971 pg 1 pg 2

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