Page 60 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2018- Online Magazine
P. 60
R. D. Jones
Sailing the Pacific
by Larry A. Williams
a farmer, and into the jungle and found a
Thelma Jones. swimming hole. I dove in
R.D. was the and got into an underground
oldest of three current and swallowed some
boys, all of water, barely getting out
whom served alive. I said, ‘Friends, let’s
in the military go back to the ship. I’m never
during WWII. coming back to the jungle!’”
One brother The natives would “climb up
served in the the trees to get a coconut and
cavalry, and would trade it for a pack of
R.D. and his cigarettes. I tried to climb up,
other brother too, but slid down.” After
served in the being on the ship for a year,
Navy. R.D. he finally got to go to Sydney,
graduated Australia for a 10-day
from high leave. The people were very
school in friendly, and “they ate a lot
Brownfield in of fish and chips and drank
1940, where beer.”
he played
football, One of the division officers
and enjoyed thought J.D. was officer
studying material. He passed the test
Agriculture. and was sent back to the
He attended states where he attended
Texas Tech TCU. (He had five colleges
for two years to choose from.) His “math
before joining was not strong enough,” so
the Navy. he left TCU after 90 days and
was sent to New Orleans,
The USS where he was assigned to
WII Navy veteran Matsonia shipped out for the USS Karne-175, a troop
R.D. Jones says that New Guinea, and R.D. and cargo ship. Shipping
Whe “learned a lot in recalls that “the ship spotted back out to the Pacific, J.D.
the Navy.” Joining in 1942 a possible submarine and remembers just when they
(he didn’t want to wait to be fired at a Kamikaze that had passed the equator. The
drafted by the Army), Jones dropped a bomb.” Dry- ship sailed in convoy and
went through training in docked in New Guinea, R.D. landed troops at Saipan and
San Diego where he stayed helped direct the boom and other staging areas in the
for about three months. He loading of the USS Regal Pacific Ocean. Among other
was assigned to the USS with food to take to other memories, the former sailor
Matsonia (formerly the cruise ships. He remembers vividly recalls some “impromptu
liner SS Matsonia), which seeing ships being hit by boxing matches.” He also
was pressed into service as a Kamikazes. On holidays, his remembers how sad it was
troop carrier during WWII. ship “would feed the troops to see his first burial at sea.
The ship had also transported on the island, and they were “One of the soldiers was
troops during WWI. happy to get a good meal cleaning his rifle, and it
R.D. Jones was born near instead of rations.” Once, he went off and killed another
Union, Texas to Riley David, and “some buddies headed soldier.”
60 Lubbock Senior Link
