Havasu veterans | Warren Jones: First the Navy, then the Marines

“I was young and broken-homed and it was a good place for me. It taught me how to be a decent person. I don’t regret a day of being in the military,” Jones said. “It was good for a young boy with no family. Like my wife used to say, ‘The military was your mom and dad’, and basically it was.”

While enlisted in the Navy, he held the rank of Petty Officer First Class and embarked on several trips around the globe with his unit. Jones is proud of his previous military travel experiences and holds those memories close to his heart.

“One thing I was kind of proud of I did in 1959 was when they opened the St. Lawrence Seaway and we were the first naval ships to go through there. We escorted the Queen through the Great Lakes so that was kind of cool,” Jones recalled. “Another time that sticks out is when I was in Africa and played my first soccer game. This African fellow that we were playing against, he was seven-foot-tall and he knocked me down. He picked me up and brushed me off. He was apologizing, I hope! But that was fun, too.”

One prominent moment that stands out in the veteran’s mind from his visit to Rome is when he visited the city’s historical church.

“In 1960, we went on a cruise in Europe. One of the neat things they did there was go to Rome to see the Pope and I had my picture taken on the St. Peter’s Cathedral stairway,” Jones said. “[The Pope] came out and gave his blessing to the crowd from the balcony. I did get to go to mass there so that was cool.”

Jones met his late wife, Carolyn, during a break in his service in 1961. The two were later married in 1963. He then embarked on his second military duty, this time as a Corporal in the Marines in 1964.

“I got out [of the Navy] and went to work for the city. One of my fellow supervisors was a sergeant in the Marines so I applied for the Marines through the reserve and went into the Marine Corps and then volunteered for active duty and went back into Vietnam again,” Jones remembered. “In the Marines, I was on a helicopter squad in Okinawa and in Vietnam.”

The dedicated veteran attributes his time in the Navy and the Marines to the growth he experienced over the course of his life.

“I went in at 17 and by the time I got out, I was 26. I was just young and crazy. As you grow older, you get more mature. I didn’t really notice that much until after I got out when I went into supervision. Working with the public is when I really noticed a change in my life,” Jones continued. “It made me into a man from a wild kid, an immature wild kid. It gave me a better outlook on life, gave me a responsibility and gave me a trade, which I never used, but it was a good trade.”

Jones departed from the Marines in 1966 after concerning health issues arose.

“I was flown out of Vietnam to a hospital in Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. Then I was flown to Hawaii and then I was flown to someplace in California. They let you pick the hospital you want to go to and I asked for Bremerton because that was the closest to home. So, I was flown to the Bremerton Naval Hospital. When I was released from the hospital, I was in Marine barracks where I was discharged from,” Jones said. “The doctor said it had something to do with Agent Orange in my lungs. Later on in life, I had heart attacks and everything else.”

After returning home to Washington, Jones and his wife Carolyn became parents to a son and a daughter. He spent 15 years working as a supervisor for the King County Metro in Seattle.

Jones found himself in Lake Havasu City about 15 years ago, where he and his wife owned a home overlooking the canal. On September 1, 2019, Jones’ wife passed away which prompted a lifestyle change for the veteran.

“Until my wife passed, I used to go out into the desert in my Jeep all the time. I love Jeeping in the desert. I spent a lot of time in the desert. As her health deteriorated, she couldn’t ride in the Jeep anymore. When she passed, I fell out of my Jeep because it was raised real high and so I fell out and I sold it,” Jones said. “I mainly just visit the folks here [at the Views]. I’m in the Marine Corps League but as my health deteriorated, I had to come back off on all of that stuff.”

A positive aspect of Jones’ current environment is the fellowship he has found amongst the local community of veterans.

“Since I moved to Havasu, the companionship you have with fellow veterans is greater here than anywhere I’ve ever been,” Jones said. “I’m really glad to see all the veterans that need help get help here through other veterans.”

Jones reflects on his stand that serving in the military should not be limited to just one section of the American people.

“I wish [people] would understand that it was a good place and training for young people. I wish it was required for men and women both to serve our country for at least six months,” Jones explained. “I wish they would understand that, at least on my part, the dedication that service people feel for their country.”

Having served twice over a portion of his life in two separate branches, Jones is a living example that the military can change one’s perspective of what it means to be of service.

“I feel I am very patriotic because of the Marines and I wish the public understood that,” Jones said. “I saw the good side, I saw the bad side but overall, I don’t regret a day I did serve.”