Page 10 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2018- Online Magazine

Justin T. Jones WWII Mission:

Glider Recovery

by Larry A. Williams

of America. Justin commence at any time. The work
saw an ad in the was tedious, and many gliders
Avalanche-Journal to had been damaged. The gliders
join up for Lubbock were made by three different
Army Flying School. manufacturers, and some of the
He and 152 West parts were not interchangeable,
Texas men signed up complicating the mission. The
on December 12, 1941. men also had to watch out for land
The men were sent mines left by the Germans. Some of
to Ft. Sill, OK to “get the gliders themselves were even
shots and uniforms”. booby-trapped. The gliders were
Then it was back to taken back to an air strip, repaired
the Lubbock Airfield. and picked up by transport; some
There were only were even picked up by a tow rope
39 enlisted men that would “snatch the glider off
and three officers the ground”.
aptain Joseph DeDera stationed there when they arrived.
received his orders from
Chis commander, Colonel
Albert Price in late September 1944 After very little training, they
in Aldermaston, England. His were “on the flight line working
mission – recover gliders used in with PT-19 trainers.” After two
the invasion of Holland. Just days months, they moved up to AT-6’s
before, the 1st Allied Airborne then AT-9’s and finally AT-11’s.
invaded Holland in an effort to Justin was unable to make cadet
seize the bridges over the Rhine because of poor eyesight. His
and make an end run around the next stop was Will Rogers Field in
Siegfried Line. It didn’t work. The Oklahoma City where the 458th
Nazis were prepared for the move, Air Service Squadron was formed.
and the Allies were stopped just The squadron was reorganized at
short of the Rhine. The Holland Barksdale Army Air Field and sent
landings were successful, however, to Ft. Dix, New Jersey, shipping
and several cities were liberated. out on a troop carrier to Liverpool,
Lubbock resident Justin T. Jones England. The squadron had been at The next retrieval zone had 60
took part in the glider recovery Aldermaston, England for several gliders. At this location, the
effort. A little known but critical months when they were ordered squadrons were bombarded by
mission during WWII, it was a on the glider mission to Holland. German 88-millimeter artillery.
highly dangerous assignment. On October 2, 1944, 151 mechanics One airman was killed by a direct
and four officers were airlifted to hit, and three were wounded. The
Eindhoven, Holland with “all they V-1 and V-2 rockets launched by
Justin was born in 1921 to Clyde could stack into 20 C-47 aircrafts, the Germans were visible from
and Dora Jones. His father was including jeeps and trailers.” their bivouac area. The Battle of
a farmer and his “mother and the Bulge was about to begin, and
grandmother ran the whole the men could also see British
family.” During his rare time off, The retrieval zone was called the Spitfires and German FW-190’s
he loved fishing “with a willow LZ-W at Zon, Holland. There dog-fighting at tree level. Early
pole, using grasshoppers as were hundreds (707 to be exact) in January 1945, their mission
bait.” He graduated from Byers of CG-4A gliders scattered all completed, they returned to Reims,
High School in 1938. He moved over the countryside. The three France where the squadron was
to Lubbock, planning to attend detachments on the field soon deactivated; it was in Reims where
Texas Tech, but said he “found out realized that Zon was a hot zone, German Marshall Alfred Jodl
how much money I didn’t have!” where British and German artillery signed the German surrender on
Instead, he landed a job at Coca- units were shelling back and May 7, 1945. On March 24, 1945,
Cola. On December 7, 1941, the forth. The men did not get much 906 reconstituted CG-4a gliders
attack on Pearl Harbor stunned all sleep here as the shelling could joined the Allied air armada and

10 Lubbock Senior Link