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JONES, FRANCIS EDWARD Born December 4, 1919 in Gravette, AR to Walter Hamilton and Maude Pearl Jones. Went home to be with the Lord on February 12, 2012 in San Diego, CA following a long and valiant battle with congestive heart failure. In 1923 he moved to Porterville, CA where he spent the rest of his childhood on the family farm. As a teenager, Mutt as he was known to his family and friends, moved to Honolulu, HI where he lived briefly with his older sister. In 1940 he enlisted in the US Army (later the Army Air Corp) at the Presidio in San Francisco. He attended pilot training as an Air Cadet prior to contracting meningitis. Undeterred, he completed training as a Radar Operator and served as an aircrew member on several bombers. At the outset of World War II he was sent to India where he flew combat missions in support of combat operations in Africa. Later he was assigned to the 40th Bomb Group where he flew myriad mission in the B-29 off the island of Tinian in support of the air war against Japan. He continued to serve in the Air Force in air search and rescue and as a weapons controller in North American Air Defense Command. He completed his 28 years of military service at the rank of Chief Warrant Officer - 4 having served his country through World War II, Korea, and the Vietnam War. Following a brief stint as a defense contractor, he moved to San Diego in 1969 where began a banking career, retiring as a Branch Manager in 1981. Frank, as he was called in his banking career, was a Freemason for 56 years, entering as a charter member of the Blue Lodge in Japan. He was a 32nd degree Mason in the Scottish Rite of San Diego, CA and a Shriner. The youngest of seven children, Francis is preceded in death by his mother and father, his six siblings, his daughter-in law Peggy Jones and one grandson Jacob Jones. A devoted husband and father, he is survived by his wife of 65 years Elizabeth (Betty) Jones of San Diego, his daughter Karen (Steve) Buddenbohm of Colbert, WA, son Rodney (Pam) Jones of Phoenix, AZ, Richard (Aimee) Jones of Clyde Hill, WA, Mark (Sheryle) Jones of Paradise, CA, Douglas (Kathy) Jones of Colbert, WA, 13 grandchildren, and 20 great-grandchildren. Special thanks to Lisa Shutt, Director of Nursing and her colleagues at Canyon Villas for their loving and compassionate care of Frank in his final difficult days. His funeral will be held at the Airman Memorial Chapel at MCAS Miramar in San Diego on Tuesday, February 21 at 10:00 a.m. with internment to follow at Miramar National Cemetery at noon. Funeral arrangements are through El Cajon-Lakeside-Santee Mortuary and Cremation Mortuary Services, 684 S. Mollison Ave, El Cajon, CA.
Published in San Diego Union-Tribune on February 17, 2012
1940-1947, AAF MOS 514, United States Army Air Corps (USAAC)
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AFSC/MOS AAF MOS 514-Radar Crewman (Designated Set)
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United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) Details
The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the military aviation arm of the United States of America between 1926 and 1941. The statutory administrative forerunner of the United States Air Force, it was renamed from the earlier United States Army Air Service on 2 July 1926 and part of the larger United States Army. The Air Corps was the immediate predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), established on 20 June 1941. Although discontinued as an administrative echelon during World War II, the Air Corps (AC) remained as one of the combat arms of the Army until 1947, when it was legally abolished by legislation establishing the Department of the Air Force.
The Air Corps was renamed by the United States Congress largely as a compromise between the advocates of a separate air arm and those of the traditionalist Army high command who viewed the aviation arm as an auxiliary branch to support the ground forces. Although its members worked to promote the concept of air power and an autonomous air force between the years between the world wars, its primary purpose by Army policy remained support of ground forces rather than independent operations.
On 1 March 1935, still struggling with the issue of a separate air arm, the Army activated the General Headquarters Air Force for centralized control of aviation combat units within the continental United States, separate from but coordinate with the Air Corps. The separation of the Air Corps from control of its combat units caused problems of unity of command that became more acute as the Air Corps enlarged in preparation for World War II. This was resolved by the creation of the Army Air Forces (AAF), making both organizations subordinate to the new higher echelon.
The Air Corps ceased to have an administrative structure after 9 March 1942, but as "the permanent statutory organization of the air arm, and the principal component of the Army Air Forces," the overwhelming majority of personnel assigned to the AAF were members of the Air Corps.