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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
They were formed as a combat unit in the spring of 1941. From all parts of the United States they came �?? young, fearless and thirsty for adventure. Well-trained and highly qualified, they fiew the powerful Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the biggest and deadliest bomber of World War II. With it, they bombed the Japanese from their base on Tinian Island in the Marianas. They were the crews of the 40th Bomb Group.
In the realm of World War II historical accounts, the 40th Bomb Group's accomplishments might seem rather small, for they did not receive the headlines accorded to Paul Tibbet's 509th Composite Group, which dropped the first atomic bomb. However, like many other groups that fiew out of the three Mariana bases on Tinian, Guam and Saipan in the months before the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb attacks, the 40th helped to lay the groundwork for ending the war.
The airmen gawked in awe at their first glimpse of the B-29. It was the largest and heaviest mass-produced airplane up to that time. Its wingspan was a seemingly endless 141 feet. It had pressurized compartments for its crew of 11, remotely controlled gun turrets, four 18-cylinder Wright Cyclone engines (capable of producing more than 2,000 hp each, the most powerful in aviation), and carried the largest propellers of any aircraft at more than 16 1/2 feet in diameter. The B-29 could carry up to 20,000 pounds of bombs and, supposedly, could hit targets from an altitude of 31,000 feet.
April 1944 saw the first of 38 B-29s and 60 40th Group fiight crews land at Chakulia, India, where the heat was unbearable for both the men and the planes. The 100-degree-plus temperatures made work impossible during the period between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
In April 1945, the 40th was ordered to its new base on Tinian, where year-round temperatures held steady in the low 80s �?? a welcome relief from the searing heat of India and the bitter cold of China. By now the 40th was part of the Twentieth Air Force, which was composed of five combat wings spread around several airfields and using 8,500-foot runways on the three tropical islands of Guam, Saipan and Tinian.
The long fiights from the Mariana Islands to Japan were tests of endurance �?? a round trip of 3,000 miles over the Pacific took about 15 hours.
The life of Eddie Allen, one of the most famous B-29s, came to an abrupt halt on the second Tokyo mission. Named after the Boeing test pilot who died in the crash of a B-29 prototype, Eddie Allen had bombed targets in seven countries before meeting its demise.
By the end of the month, 56 square miles of the Japanese capital had ceased to exist. Because the losses were so heavy that month, LeMay ordered another change of tactics. It was back to daylight high-level attacks. The first of these raids was against Yokohama on May 29. A large force of 459 B-29s was escorted by P-51 Mustangs. In a series of grueling dogfights, the Mustangs shot down 26 Japanese fighters. Three Mustangs and four B-29s were lost.
It seemed only fitting that the 40th fiy in the first B-29 raid of the war and the last one. On August 14, it helped bomb the naval arsenal at Hikari. That same day Japan capitulated. The 40th had made an impressive showing in the Pacific fight, joining in 70 combat missions, dropping 9,200 tons of bombs on enemy targets, and losing 32 B-29s to enemy action. Fifty-three crew members were killed, 26 were wounded and 134 were reported missing. The group's gunners were credited with 46 1/2 enemy planes shot down, 92 probably destroyed and 64 others damaged.
Calamity Jane" (40th Bomb Group)
''EDDIE ALLEN''
''Black Magic II''
DRAGGIN' LADY
Eight Ball Charlie
Deacons Disciples II
Ditched enroute Nagoya Mission
Copilot only one rescued. 10 MIA
