"Wildcats," "Cardinals" and "Packers" helped define "Steamboat Jackson" to Watsonville.

Hubert Curtis Jackson was born in Jasper Alabama, in 1924, to Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Jackson. The Jackson family moved to Watsonville in 1937, where it expanded to include sons Hubert and Owel and daughters Jeanette and Ollie Lee. Hubert attended a local grammar school and entered Watsonville High School about 1938. Known as "Steamboat" Jackson, he was an all-around athlete and during his two years in high school was captain of its "wildcat" football and baseball teams. After leaving school, he kept up his proficiency in baseball by playing on both the White's Cardinals and Pete's Packer teams of the city league.

Hubert Jackson enlisted in the United States Army Air Force in San Francisco on February 9, 1942. He was trained at Keesler field, Mississippi, Amarillo, Texas, and Wichita Falls, Texas, before being assigned as a nose gunner on a B- 24 Liberator bomber. When Private Jackson arrived overseas, he joined the 762nd Squadron of the 460th Bomb Group.

On October 16, 1944, while flying a mission over Yugoslavia, Corporal Hubert Curtis Jackson's plane was shot down and crashed. He was listed as "missing in action" until February 1945, when his parents were officially notified of his death.

His remains were recovered and returned to the United States for burial in the Golden Gate National Cemetery at San Bruno, June 24, 1949.

(NARA2; USDVA; WRP February 2, 1945 1:3; Photo-WHS)