JONES, ROBERT CAMPBELL

Name: Robert Campbell Jones
Rank/Branch: O2/United States Air Force
Unit: 435th TFS
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record: Madison NJ
Date of Loss: 18 January 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 211800 North 1061200 East
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F4D
Missions: 58
Other Personnel in Incident: Robert Hinckley, returnee, pilot

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews.

REMARKS: 730314 RELEASED BY DRV

SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977
Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor
P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602
Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and
spelling errors).
UPDATE - 09/95 by the P.O.W. NETWORK, Skidmore, MO

ROBERT C. JONES
Captain - United States Air Force
Shot Down: January 18, 1968
Released: March 14, 1973

When I think back now over the last six years, I sometimes get an odd
feeling that it was all just a bad dream. That far away land on the other
side of the world is just a figment of my imagination, and the people there
and the events that took place are a strange fantasy. But I guess it is
human nature to shroud, in the mind's eye, unpleasantness, discomfort, pain,
and to push forward the more positive aspects arising out of our captivity.

There are some that are fairly obvious - nearness to God, love of country,
life-long friendships, and hopefully, a building and strengthening of our
characters through our experience. There are others that might not be so
readily apparent. One of these is what some may call "Yankee ingenuity." I
was amazed and upon thinking back now, am continually amazed at what
Americans, after being placed in an extremely restricted environment, can
contrive. Any small stick, piece of paper, rock, nail, or bone was made into
something useful. We made playing cards from cigarette wrappers or toilet
paper, dice and poker chips from hardened bread dough, ink from cigarette
ashes and sugar, sewing needles from nails or bone, a chess set from
hardened polished mud, writing pens from toothbrush handles or bamboo, and
note books from anything we could find to write on. At Christmas and
shoot-down anniversaries, gifts were usually exchanged, normally of the gag
variety. On a few occasions, someone miraculously, even came up with a cake!
We had plays, skits, musicals, speeches, movies, puppet shows, and choral
performances, complete with costumes, sets, sound effects, curtain, and
stage.

The list could go on and on about the efforts we made to keep our minds
active, to learn, entertain ourselves, pay tribute, or just pass the time.
Possibly the most amazing of all though, was that for the vast majority of
our captivity, all or most of these games, gifts, shows, etc., were illegal,
and therefore had to be constructed and carried out covertly. Of course,
sometimes we were caught and punished but this seldom dampened our efforts
for long. Perhaps the most meaningful items we constructed, which were
always considered contraband by our captors, were the American Flags we made
from handkerchiefs, bits of cloth, paper, anything we could use. It was
surprising the proudness we felt viewing these poor replicas of "Old Glory."
Today I think back on these seemingly distant years in the past. I remember
the men - old friendships, our happiness, our trials, and our miseries.
Recalling harder, I can see the prisons, the cells, the guards, and the
filth. But most of all, I remember those rough, ragged homemade flags and I
puff my chest up, hold my head high, and know I live in the finest country
in the world, and that I am an American.

December 1996
Robert Jones and his wife Freya reside in Florida.

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