Jacobs served on the faculty of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the National War College in Washington, D.C. After retirement, he co-founded and was chief operating officer of Auto Finance Group. He was a managing director of Bankers Trust Company and later of Lehman Brothers. He is a military analyst for NBC and MSNBC and writes a weekly column for MSNBC.com. He also appears frequently on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and is a regular guest on the nationally syndicated Imus in the Morning radio program. Jacobs serves on the boards of a number of charitable organizations and is the vice chairman of the Medal of Honor Foundation.

Col. Jack Jacobs believes that our nation has avoided examining the role of citizenry in the defense of its Republic. In his stirring personal story, told in collaboration with New York Times bestselling author Doug Century, the Medal of Honor recipient will offer pointed and controversial views on the mismanagement of the Iraq war, the so-called "War on Terror" and the scandals in the Abu Ghraib prison, and meditate upon Jacobs' strongly held views of service.

Jacobs' memoir is the story of a young first-generation American, born in Brooklyn, who finds himself thrust into the heat of combat where his character is defined in ways he could never have imagined during the crucible of battle.