Close encounters with death spur former war correspondent Jerry Jackson to put extra years to good use-writing a tribute book to those who served in the World War II Pacific.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
Jerry Jackson was told by a doctor in 1985 that his liver was failing and he had five years to live. With the help of modern medicine, the Malibu resident proved that doctor wrong. Then in 1997, his liver did fail, and friends and family prepared for what they believed was his imminent death. But he was saved through a liver transplant. A World War II enthusiast, the man who calls himself “The Comeback Kid” has put the extra years of life he received to good use with the writing of a tribute book to those who served, “Remembering: Stories from the World War II Pacific.”
Jackson, 70, said he has been a “World War II buff” since he was an 8-year-old in 1943 living in North Hollywood. Standing on the street corner in front of his school, he waved at soldiers passing by and they returned the gesture. “I was so moved that they waved to this 8-year-old kid,” Jackson said.
Two years later, Jackson met with his first of many life-threatening experiences when a Medal of Honor-awarded pilot, Richard I. Bong, was in a test plane that was on fire, headed toward his school. Although Bong was given the OK to jump out of the aircraft, he refused as he saw it was headed for a schoolyard filled with children. Bong instead remained in the aircraft as it crashed to the ground in a ball of fire. Bong died, and Jackson remembers how that man may have saved his life. Bong’s story and many others are included in the book.
Jackson and his wife, Carol, attended the 1994 D-Day ceremonies in France to mark the 50th anniversary of the battle that turned the tide of World War II toward an Allied victory. They also went to Pearl Harbor in December 2001 on the 60th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the naval base. Following the gathering at Pearl Harbor, he took a 23-day cruise with more than 500 World War II veterans of Pacific Theater battle sites. During that cruise, he met many people, whose stories he chronicles in his book.
“I’m paying a tribute to the World War II veterans and particularly those that served in the Pacific,” Jackson said. “Those that served in the Pacific, they were low on ammunition, because it was going to other theaters. Roosevelt and Churchill wanted to take care of the European Theater first. They [Pacific Theater veterans] were slighted in recognition, so I wanted to give them recognition for who they were and what they did.”
Jackson said World War II is a special conflict because it is the last one where the nation pulled together and nearly all its people supported it. He said the 1998 publication of Tom Brokaw’s book, “The Greatest Generation,” brought back to the public the attention of World War II and the Americans who participated in it.
“There’s become a renewed interest both by those who served and those affected by the war,” Jackson said. “People realize that without the American effort, we’d be speaking Japanese or German today.”
During the Cold War, Jackson was sent to Okinawa as a telecommunications specialist. He later became a Vietnam War correspondent for a newspaper in the San Fernando Valley. In Vietnam he contracted hepatitis through a funeral ritual that required participants to drink buffalo blood. He would not learn this had happened to him until more than 20 years later.
“The doctor said there was a high enzyme count, ran tests and said, ‘You’ve got five years to live and then it will be total liver failure.'”
Jackson saw a doctor who was conducting special new tests, and this eventually brought him back to health. But then, one day in May 1997, his skin turned golden yellow. The hepatitis had destroyed his liver. Jackson went to the hospital and then later returned home to settle his affairs. Later, while lying in the hospital with blurred vision, he could see the associate pastor of his church praying for him. Friends and family then said their good-byes, and a few minutes later he went into a three-and-a-half-week coma.
During this time, an 11-year-old boy drowned in a swimming accident and his organs became available for transplant. All but one of the persons on the committee that decided who could receive organ transplants said Jackson was too far gone to be a candidate for the liver. The one dissenter, Malibu hepatologist Leonard Goldstein, said he should be the one.
“He said, ‘All this man needs is a liver and he’ll be fine,'” Jackson said. And Goldstein was right. Jackson slowly returned to good health and learned to walk and use his hands again.
Jackson is in communication with the family of the boy whose liver saved his life. And he visits the boy’s grave every year on the anniversary of his death. He said since receiving the liver, his marriage has become stronger and he no longer has a strong interest in material things.
The liver transplant was not Jackson’s last close encounter with death. Last year he received a medication during a routine doctor’s appointment that caused him to become drowsy. On the drive home, he fell asleep at the wheel and his car was involved in a collision. But Jackson survived the incident. “For some reason, I continue to be saved from different experiences and I continue to wonder why,” Jackson said. “Some people say I was put here to write this book.”
Jackson will be at Diesel, A Bookstore on Sunday from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. to sign his book. The bookstore is located at 3890 Cross Creek Road. More information can be obtained by calling 456.9961.