Havasu Veterans | Earl "Wayne" Jones: Vietnam War veteran volunteered to help during 9/11 attacks

This occurrence of living in border towns followed Jones throughout his childhood. Before his adolescence, Jones resided in the New Mexico town of Anthony. As his wife states, this area also bordered the state of Texas.

Decades later, Jones and his wife now live in Lake Havasu City, which the couple acknowledges borders the California state line.

At the age of 18, Jones decided to join the U.S. Air Force after being unsuccessful in his college courses.

“I got my letter when I flunked out of college for the last time saying that I was going in and I had a few days to select, so that worked out okay,” Jones said.

After enlisting in 1966, Jones found himself attending a technical training school. He then traveled to Fairbanks, Alaska where his unit conducted temporary duty assignments across Southeast Asia.

As Jones describes, the deployments he went on to Vietnam were short-lived. He often spent time traveling in helicopters and other types of aircraft during his military career, he adds.

The duty Jones held was as an air crew survival specialist. This position gave Jones the hands-on experience of teaching survival methods to air crews while maintaining their floatation and survival gear, he says.

Around 1970, Jones finished with the Air Force in Wichita, Kansas. A 10-year hiatus from the military followed during this time period. Several years later in 1977, Jones and his wife were married as he was attending classes for a flight school.

When he and wife relocated to Cheyenne, Wyoming, Jones was instantly made aware of the Wyoming Air Guard. Through conversations, Jones eventually went to the military unit and joined in the early 1980s.

“It just so happened that (in) my career field, there was one person in there and he had been looking for somebody qualified for years,” Jones explained. “From there, the rest of that is history.”

From the early ‘80s to the early 2000s, Jones spent his time traveling across the globe to support his fellow airmen. Other branches of service were often supported by Jones’ guard unit, he says, which included members of the U.S. Navy SEALs.

One particular instance Jones shares happened during an assignment in Haiti. While conducting air drops, the accompanying Navy SEALs team were receiving support from Jones’ unit.

The combat force team was called into the Caribbean country to secure a prison that was overrun by its prisoners, Jones says. His unit had landed the team into the ocean in the middle of the night, he says. The prison, which was located on an island east of Haiti, soon received help from the Navy SEALs before their departure.

The country of Panama also received visits from Jones’ unit, which lent support to a fellow Air Force unit. His unit was in close proximity to the notoriously known Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, he says.

“(We) brought some single troops in to take on some drug populations and clear those fields,” Jones continued. “They were there when they got Noriega… One of our planes hauled him back.”

Despite being in his 30s while starting in the guard, Jones continued to serve his country years later. Nearing the point of his retirement, Jones remembers having his paperwork submitted when the 9/11 attacks occurred.

By his own will, Jones volunteered to stay in the guard with his unit. Around 32 retired airmen, including Jones, were rehired when the terrorist attacks happened in the states, he says.

When Jones did leave the military, he was 54 years old. He worked at several other companies before officially retiring in the early 2010s.

The span of his military career shaped Jones into the person he is today, he describes. Through his friends and experiences, Jones says the military was his life.

Thinking back on how Vietnam veterans used to be treated, Jones says military personnel would feel belittled when returning to the states.

“People would look at you and turn away from you and spit… Although you’re serving your country to make it possible for them to act like that,” Jones said. “Just remember, you have all these freedoms because a lot of people paid, some of them – the ultimate sacrifice – to make that possible.”