Colin N. Jones US Army Hickam Field |
Born August 2, 1921 in Youngstown, OH. An Army "brat, he signed up for the Air Force, Hawaii in September 1939 to go to the West Point Prep School. After basic training at Hickam Field, he was assigned to the 26th Bomb Squadron, 11th Bomb Group. Finding he preferred the Air Force, he had to wait until he was 21 to take the competitive, two-year college equivalence exam required for flight school. On December 7, 1941, while in Hangar 13 helping ready planes and was in the hangar when it was hit by bombs, but escaped with minor scratches. Informed the day after Pearl Harbor that he and ten others had passed the exam, he was pulled from his squadron who were preparing to go to the South Pacific, and sailed on the USS Lurline, the first ship to leave Hawaii after the attack. Landing in San Francisco December 30, 1941, he believes he was the first GI down the gangplank. In 1943, he was assigned to the 93rd Bomb Group in England and flew missions out of there and Africa, where the 93rd was twice sent to conduct special missions. While in England, he survived a mid-air crash with a P-47 flown by Walker Mahurin, who became the leading ace in Europe prior to his being shot down. Shot down over the North Sea in 1943, he became a POW. Near the end of the war, when all POWs were being marched back into Germany, he managed to escape with Fred Mills and joined up with Patton's Army near Branau, Hitler's birthplace. His happiest memory is using the latrine set up on the rear of Hitler's home. His service in the Pacific, Europe and Africa resulted in his being awarded 13 Battle Stars among other decorations. After the war, he completed college at the University of Texas, spent 20 years with IBM and then became president of Sensormatic Electronics, a public company. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. |
Information provided by Colin N. Jones. |
