My uncle Captain G. N. Jones (USAAF Ret.) passed away over the weekend.
Most of you all here have heard me speak of him. He was a B-24 Pilot in the 465th BG 783rd BS, Cerginola Italy, 1944-1945
He will be buried in the DFW National Cemetery on Wednesday.
I grew up with my dad on one side. He worked for North American in Dallas building the best airplanes in the world!
And on the other side was my moms brother, Nathan. He was a cantankerous fellow but he always had time to answer my questions about his WWII experiences. We talked about training at Wink and Pampa, about flying low level cross country in a B-24, about buzzing the school in his home town of Meadow, TX ( they waved their finger at him over that one)
He told me of the ugly part of war, helping to clean up the airplane full of friends that crashed on take off, of guys not coming home. He told me of seeing a jet fighter one day...thankfully a long way off, just tracking them. He had great pride in his service and of flying the B-24, IFR made him sweat but the rest was great fun.
He bought me my first B-17 ride (although he was not real happy about me riding in that "ugly airplane" )
I'm gonna miss him. MY own personal Hero!
And a picture of my mom and her brothers Wendell (USN WWII) and Nathan...
They are all gone now...the passing of a generation.
Thanks for indulging me...
Z
