Page 29 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2024 - Online Magazine

VeteranS
ceLeBratinG 10 YearS
2015
eDition
the engineer, escaped by climbing over an 8’ barbed
wire fence at 2:00 a.m. in a blinding snowstorm. They
were aided by Chetnik guerillas, led by General Draza
Mihailovich, who had killed all 30 German guards and
then led the prisoners into the hills. While searching a WWII website, Homer’s son Rick
came across a photo of his old crew and eventually
Homer and Wilson were led back to Yugoslavia and found Homer’s good buddy Wilson Leon living in
began a long trek through Europe to try and get back to Florida. Rick said he “nearly fell out of the chair”
an Allied occupied area. They went into Hungary, across when he found out it was the same guy that escaped
Romania and into Bulgaria, where they ended up in the with Homer back during WWII. They met in Florida
capital, Sofia, where they stayed in an American Mission in May, 2009, after not seeing each other for 64 years
about six weeks and were finally flown back to their base and the tears and memories flowed freely. Mr. Jones
in Italy on April 10, 1945. Homer said that he sometimes went on the 2011 Amarillo Honor Flight. He said he
went as much as 2 – 3 days without food. That and the still likes to tell school children about his experience
constant fear of being recaptured was always on their during the war and he tells them that he “learned
minds. when his freedom was gone as a POW that we (the
United States) are more free than any nation under
Not long after Homer and his crew were shot down, his the stars.”
parents received a telegram from the War Department
that his plane had “been shot down, that he was MIA
(Missing in Action) and no parachutes were seen being
deployed.” They immediately thought the worst – their HoMer JoneS
Homer was gone. Sometime during their imprisonment, passed away on October 24, 2020 at
the pilot of their B-24 who had been in hiding with the the age of 97. His wife of 74 years,
Greek mountain people ran across a German magazine
and saw a picture of his crew being paraded down a Jo Jones passed October 27, 2020.
street by German troops. He immediately sent this
information to the War Department and they sent the
picture of the crew members to the families to let them
know that their loved ones were in fact still alive and
probably in a German prisoner of war camp. This was the
first time they knew that Homer survived the crash and
might still be alive.

Homer’s war in Europe was finally over when he
departed Italy for the U.S. on June 17, 1945, aboard the
U.S.S. West Point. He arrived in the U.S. on June 23, 1945
and after rehab in Florida, was discharged November 6,
1945, in Roswell, NM. He met and eventually married
Jo Pruitt from Wilson, Texas, on June 1, 1946. He then
enrolled in Texas Tech in 1946, and received his bachelor’s
degree in 1948. He said he “went straight through” and
graduated in 3 years. He also earned his Master’s degree
in 1960. He retired from Wellman ISD after 35 years as
an Agriculture Education teacher. He then worked for
Wellman Gin as a bookkeeper for 18 more years and did
not retire again until he was 80 years old. Homer and Jo
had 5 children, including twin boys. Sadly, one of the Respectfully Submitted by Larry A. Williams
twins was killed in a car accident. Homer said that was Veteran’s Liaison Committee Co-Chair
“the hardest thing he and Jo ever went through.” Texas South Plains Honor Flight

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