Until 8 p.m. includes Twin Cities area

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

The soldier's parents were on the road when they heard the news.  Charlie Thompson says they were in Green Bay, Wisconsin, visiting friends late Monday afternoon when his cell phone rang.

"She says 'I'm so-and-so from the Department of the Army, such-and-such division.  I'm sorry to inform you but your son Jacob has been killed in action,'" Thompson said.  "And my first reaction was, this is a sick joke.  I says, 'You got to be kidding.'  And I said it just like that, 'I says you got to be kidding.'  She says, 'No, I'm sorry your son's been killed.'" 

Thompson's wife Barb was beside him while they remembered the moment.  They sat at a table decorated with photos of their son.

"I'm not sure if that was any harder than if they had come to the door,"  said Barb Thompson.  "But we had to get back home so we left."

Back in Minnesota they shared their grief when their other two sons, Jon and Jason.  Sitting in a chair outside the main entrance to a Mankato church, Charlie Thompson said he was eager to meet with the news media.  In fact, he said he would talk as long as anyone had a question.  He said he wanted the world to know about his son.  

He told the story of a lieutenant who specifically requested that Jacob Thompson be part of his team.

"He felt Jacob was one of the best,"  he said.  "And I'll tell you, boy, that makes a dad feel awful proud to know that a lieutenant over there wanted to work with Jacob 'cause he was the best."

Staff Sgt. Jacob Thompson was a member of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment based out of Fort Lewis, Washington.  He was on his second tour of Iraq.  

Thompson led a 6-soldier Stryker armored vehicle unit.  They were searching a house in Baquba when an exploding bomb killed Thompson.  

Charlie Thompson says his son was a giving person, willing to lay down his life for others.  He remembered an incident from Jacob's first tour.  He was wounded by a roadside bomb and received a Purple Heat.  But when he learned another injured solider there that day did not get the award, Jacob Thompson did something extraordinary.

"He gave the guy his Purple Heart,"  Thompson said.  "We don't have that.  He didn't want it for himself."

26-year-old Jacob Thompson was a graduate of Mankato West High School.  His family said he loved to hunt and fish.   Charlie Thompson says looking back it's almost as if his son had a premonition that death was near.  

Jacob Thompson bought a hemi-powered Dodge Charger just before he left for his last tour.  He told his dad he wanted the muscle car experience right now, because he felt he might not come back from Iraq.   Then, just before he left for Baqubah, he called his parents.  He warned them it  would be a dangerous mission.  

"At the end of our conversations I always told him that I loved him and he always said 'I love you,'" said Thompson.  "When he found out he was going on this special mission as we closed up our conversation he says, 'I really love you guys'.   It was almost like he was saying, 'This might be the last time.'"   

Charlie Thompson describes his son as hardcore, someone who completely believed in the U.S. mission to Iraq.   He was so dedicated he was already planning for a third tour when he died.  

Charlie Thompson says at one point, he and his wife expressed doubt, saying they weren't sure if the U.S. should be in Iraq.  He says his son won him over with a passionate argument about the good things that were happening.  He said the message that America is a friend had reached to many levels of Iraqi society, especially the children.   

Funeral arrangements have not yet been made, but Charlie Thompson says he'll let the entire state know when that happens;  and he wants everyone to come.

Gallery

Mark Steil

Author

Army Staff Sgt. Jacob Thompson, who grew up in North Mankato, is the latest Minnesota solider to die in Iraq.  Thompson was killed this week in Baqubah during a house-to-house search.

Soldier from North Mankato killed in Iraq

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox