Most of us know Jake as an R/C pilot that likes to (and does) go fast & turn left.  Before Jake tells his story, here's a few comments from an article by Duane Gall in a Model Aviation magazine.  (Jake is the tall guy on the left in the picture below, proud of his first racer.  To see a larger view, just click the picture.)

Retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Gail E."Jake"  Jacobson has raced Radio Control (RC) model aircraft at contests across the United States since 1972, when racing as we know it was just getting started.  He won the AMA Nationals twice and the NMPRA (National Miniature Pylon Racing Association) Championship twice.  He has represented AMA District V on the RC Racing Contest Board for 25 years, has served as a contest director for racing events at the Atlanta RC Club for 18 years (so far), and has been president of the Atlanta RC Club at least twice.

...He was one of the brightest, if not the brightest, rising star in the Air Force at the time, downing two German fighter airplanes in one mission, less than two months after arriving in England, and a third shortly thereafter.  It takes five kills to qualify as an Ace, and by the time the war ended, Jake was officially credited with 4.5 aerial kills.  The last one counted as half only because of a technicality.  He is also credited with six enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground, and he earned a career total of 18 Air Medals and DFC.

Jake tells the following...

     Our Squadron was the 434th.  The other squadrons in the 479th [Fighter Group] were the 435 and 436 squadrons.  We were all in the same field at Wattisham, England (F377), about five miles west of Ipswich in the middle of the east coast of England.
     Our mission was protecting the bombers, mainly the B-24s.  Sometimes we had to escort the B-17s and because they flew almost higher than we could, it was sometime difficult.  The B-17s flew around 30,000 feet.  We had to fly 2,000 feet higher.  At that altitude we were flying with full throttle and using the propeller to change our speed to stay in formation.  Our speed was approximately 140 mph, which at 32,000 feet is close to stalling.  The B-24s flew around 25,000 feet.  The bombers had to go over the target.  We went around.
     The concrete runway we used 99 percent of the time and was about 3,000 feet long.  The diagonal runway was 3,500 feet asphalt but hilly.  If the wind was calm and we had our 109-gallon paper tanks on each wingtip, I used to have to bounce on the landing gear to get the airplane up and hope it stayed up.  The paper tanks would only hold the fuel for 24 hours and start leaking.  We never brought the paper tanks home.  The P-51Ds were designed for the 75-gallon metal tanks, but we never had any of those.
     I only flew P-40s in the States.  Our training was done with P-51Bs and Cs in England.  At the 434th Squadron was the first time I saw a P-51D.  There weren't yet any two-seat P-40s or P-51s for training.  We studied the cockpit until we could remember where everything was by touch.
     A mechanic would help start the engine.  The next step was to call the tower, taxi, and off we went.  We had to learn the geography of the French coast and the English coast.  We were given the degrees of the sun off the wing if we had no instruments.  We had a degree map in the cockpit so we could determine from the compass or sun how to get home.  When we got close to home we used our radio for directional steer if we got lost.  We only had a four VHF channel radio in the airplane.
     The English weathermen were always right.  They had weather fronts stacked up on the English west coast and fronts came through on time.  If we came back from a mission we could count how high the clouds would be so we could land.  They had lights ringed around the field so if it was dusk or dark or low ceiling we could follow the lights into the runway.
     We always flew left around the field.  One pilot went around the field the wrong way... I was glad to see the belly of the airplane going the wrong way.  We almost always had to climb up through the clouds.  I saw a few days in June when it was good enough to see the sun and it was warm.  You could see all of the three squadrons in the clouds most of the time.

Following is Jake's combat report of December 5, 1944

     I was flying Newcross White Two, 1 Section A on a bomber escort mission to the Berlin area.  Just northwest of the target, in the vicinity of Neuruppin, we were at 27,000 feet, heading northeast, when Major Arthur F. Jeffrey, Newcross Section A leader, called in a formation of Fw 190s and Me 109s 2,000 feet below us driving northwest.  On orders we dropped tanks and turned to attack.
     We dived right through a gaggle of about 15 Me109s, scattering their formation, and then closed on 40 plus Fw 190s slightly below the first formation.  We moved in from dead astern and Major Jeffrey, whose wing I was flying, attacked one, so I moved out to the right and positioned myself on another 190.  I opened fire from six o'clock, slightly highside, at 300 yards, and gave him about a two-second burst, observing a few strikes in the left wing.
     The German didn't take any evasive action at all, and I was surprised when he jettisoned his canopy almost at once.  I cocked up on one wing and watched him roll over to the right and bail out, but I didn't see his parachute open.
     I was still in formation with Major Jeffrey and I saw him move over toward me so I moved out to the right again and positioned myself for an attack on an Fw 190 which had broken off from the enemy formation in a gentle left turn.
     I closed to 300 yards and opened fire from dead astern just above his contrail.  All my guns were not firing and I had to hold right rudder to keep the ball centered.  I fired a two-second burst and didn't notice any strikes, but the pilot popped his canopy at once and tumbled out the right side.  The canopy almost hit me as it sailed past.  I didn't wait to see if his chute opened but followed Major Jeffrey, who had done a wingover to the left.
     I claim two Fw 190s destroyed.
     Ammunition expended:  632 rounds 50-caliber API [Armor Piercing Incendiary].