JONES, JOHN ROBERT

Name: John Robert Jones
Rank/Branch: E5/US Army Special Forces
Unit: Task Force 1, Advisory Element, USARV TAG SUP; Headquarters USARV
Date of Birth: 20 February 1949 (Louisville KY)
Home City of Record: El Paso TX
Date of Loss: 05 June 1971
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 164111N 1064346E (XD844455)
Status (in 1973): Presumed Dead
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 1753

Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S.
Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families,
published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK in 1998.

Other Personnel In Incident: Jon R. Cavaiani (released POW)

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: In 1971, MACV-SOG's Command and Control North, Central and South
were redesignated as Task Force Advisory Elements 1, 2 and 3, respectively.
These titular changes had little initial impact on actual activities. Their
missions were still quite sensitive and highly classified. Each task force
was composed of 244 Special Forces and 780 indigenous commandos, and their
reconnaissance teams remained actively engaged in cross-border intelligence
collection and interdiction operations. The USARV TAG (Training Advisory
Group) supported the USARV Special Missions Advisory Group and was composed
of U.S. Army Special Forces and MACV advisors. SMAG formed at Nha Trang from
former personnel from B-53, the MACV Rcondo School cadre, CCN and CCS to
train the South Vietnamese Special Missions Force teams drawn from LLDB and
Ranger units.

Task Force 1 Advisory Element was forced from its Hickory Hill radio relay
site at Dong Tri in early June 1971. The Hickory Hill post had existed on
strategic Hill 953, in northwest Quang Tri Province at the edge of the DMZ
since June 1968. On June 3, heavy North Vietnamese artillery began battering
the bunkered Hickory Hill defenses.

On June 4, five wounded Special Forces and ten indigenous commandos were
medically evacuated, leaving SSgt. Jon R. Cavaiani and Sgt. John R. Jones
with 23 commandos defending the mountaintop. At about 0400 hours on June 5,
Jones and Caviani were in a bunker when a hand grenade was dropped through
the air vent, wounding Sgt. Jones in the leg. Jones left the bunker, and was
seen shot in the chest by an NVA soldier.

An NVA battalion stormed the summit and captured Hickory Hill on June 5 in
adverse weather which prevented air support. In the bunker, Caviani played
dead as NVA soldiers came in looking for survivors. As his bunker was set on
fire, Caviani ran, burned, to another bunker. He spotted a helicopter and
attempted to signal it, serving only to alert the enemy to his position.
Cavaiani was captured as the last positions fell.

Later searches failed to turn up any sign of John R. Jones, dead or alive.
He is among nearly 2500 Americans still missing in Southeast Asia. There can
be little question that the enemy knows his fate, yet the Vietnamese deny
knowledge of him. Evidence mounts that hundreds of these men are still
alive, captive, waiting for their country to bring them home. One of them
could be John R. Jones.

Sgt. Jon R. Cavaiani was released by the Provisional Government of Vietnam
on March 27, 1973. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his
attempt to defend Hickory Hill.

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