HomeMy WebLinkAboutSamuel H. Jones, Brazos Valley HeroesBy Bill Youngkin
Special to The Eagle
Samuel H. "Sam." Jones of College Station was
involved in two significant events during World War II
that helped bring about the defeat of the Nazis. Those
events were the involvement of women into the war
material/manufacturing workforce and the arming of
the Russians.
As Jones recalls: "I was born in 1925 in Fisher,
Louisiana, but spent most of my childhood in Hemphill,
Texas, along the Louisiana border. While growing up
there, I was exposed to Army troops training along the
border and seeing those guys training in the sloughs
and swamps. I decided right then that if I ever was
going to be in the military, I didn't want to be a foot
soldier.
"My last year of school was spent in Beaumont,
where my father had gone to work in the shipyards after
the war had started. I graduated at the age of 16 from
South Park High in Beaumont in the spring of 1942. I
was too young for the military, so I got a job working in
the shipyards where my dad worked.
"Ship building is an interesting process. I worked
in several areas, to include working on the drive shaft
tunnels where they would hang the rudder. The rudder
came in large iron pieces which we welded together.
Working in the shipyard was agood-paying job.
"I eventually became a layout man, which involved
laying out parts to the ship, like the deck plate, etc.
In early 1943 women were brought into the shipyard
for the first time because many of the men were
volunteering or being drafted into the military. I was
assigned six women, some the age of my mother, to
train. It was difficult for me at first to tell grown women
what to do, especially since I wasn't 18 yet, but they
soon got acclimated. Some of the more physical tasks
were difficult for them initially, but they became very
productive very quickly.
"I was not 18 yet and knew I would be drafted when
I would turn 18, so I finally got my parents to allow me
to volunteer for the Navy. In 1943 I was inducted into
the Navy and was sent to San Diego for boot camp.
I ended up in Pensacola, Florida, in naval aviation,
specifically seaplanes. While in Pensacola, I married my
high school sweetheart, who remained my sweetheart
until her death 10 years ago.
I was eventually sent to Nortolk, where I became
a member of VS 42. We were flying SBDs aboard the
aircraft carrier the USS Ranger. The planes we flew were
scout bombers, and I was a combat crewman serving
primarily as a gunner. Our job was to serve as an escort
to the supply ship convoys being sent to Europe, but
mainly to Russia.
around the sides of the convoys, the convoys were still
attacked. When we spotted a U-boat we would call for
depth charges from a destroyer and we would drop
bombs or depth charges from our planes. As a result
of this tactic, we began to thin out those German U-
boats.
"We hauled pretty much everything the Russians
needed for the war and were using at the end of the war.
The Russians had millions of people but had little in the
way of war materials. We escorted convoy after convoy
of tanks, trucks, artillery pieces and everything else they
needed to continue the fight against the Germans. As
we learned later, that material was adifference-maker
for the Russians, and in the war against the Germans.
"When we went to Russia, we. headed across the
North Atlantic to Ireland and then up to Norway, around
Sweden and then up to Murmansk, Russia, where the
ships would be unloaded. While there, if you ever went
ashore you were followed by a Russian official wherever
you went. The Russians were not happy people, or didn't
seem to be to me.
"When the war ended, I decided to stay in the Navy.
Jobs were scarce and I was helping train seaplane
crews in Pensacola when the war ended, and I liked
what I was doing. When the Korean War broke out, I was
part of a 10-man seaplane crew as a tailgunner and got
to watch Chinese and Russian MIGs trailing behind us,,
always at night, around the Sea of Japan. They would
have to swing from side to side to stay behind us and I
could see the flame from their jet engines. They never
attacked us, but it sure made you keep your finger on
the trigger.
"I was eventually sent to pre-flight training, and
upon completion of that training I was commissioned
as a ensign in the Navy. I completed my 30-year career
in the Navy in 1973 as a lieutenant commander, and
my last duty was with asea-to-air rescue unit using
helicopters off the coast of Vietnam. Our job was to
locate and rescue downed pilots."
Jones, now a veteran of three wars, returned
to Beaumont, where he completed his education by
getting a degree in accounting from Lamar University.
He worked as an accountant with Texas Commerce
Bank until his wife's illness brought about his final
retirement. They moved to College Station so they could
be near their children and grandchildren.
As Jones said, "The Navy put me on my own, taught
me how to manage my life and taught how to become
a man."
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