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Old 07-18-2006, 16:10   #1
BMT (RIP)
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Buone Nao Project

http://www.glanmore.org/buonenao/buonenao.html

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Old 12-07-2006, 22:01   #2
Maria
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TAPS-Charlie Jones

The Buon Enao Project was conceived as a website in order to tell the story but also in so many salient ways of value in memory of Terry Cordell, Richard Foxx and Herbert Booth.

Charlie Jones was a contributor to the website and recently passed. The history of one who recorded it in memory of his brothers and the lineage continues.

FWD from FAC Net yahoo group
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Someone asked who Charlie Jones is and I sent this out:

Charlie was first an NCO in the Air Commandos and later became a WO in the Army SFO. He was a Butterfly FAC--the forerunner of the Raven until Gen Momeyer found out that enlisted were directing his aircraft in Laos. He created the Raven as a result of finding enlisted were directing his aircraft for air strikes in Laos. Charlie had a very colorful career in the AF and there are stories abound about him with the Vietnamese/Laotians etc. When he retired from the Army he went out and got 2 PHDs and also became a lawyer. He taught in a number of universities. I always thought he was the smartest guy I knew in the AF. The Nov 1965 SAGA Magazine wrote about our heroes in Vietnam and one included Charlie Jones which is below. Charlie was also a past president of the Air Commando Association (ACA) and was involved in numerous things. He spent a great deal of his life as a Combat Controller and later became the Chaplain for the ACA. His last duties as Chaplain were in Oct 2006 for the dedication of BG King's auditorium at Eglin AFB and at Sunday's ACA reunion memorial service at Hurlburt. This should give you an idea who Charlie Jones is.

Gene Rossel

In the November 1965 SAGA magazine under the title of "KILL THE S.O.B.'s" A Commando, who was a Combat Control Team(CCT), named Charley Jones was listed as one of the "THE SAGA OF AMERICA'S 10 MOST FEARED FIGHTING MEN." The others listed in the article included Sgt Major Paul E. Blenis USA SF, General Paul Dewitt Adams USA, LTC Robinson Risner USAF, Specialist 4th Class Hans Werner USA, Msgt James H. LaCasse USAF, Lt Joseph Demartino USN SEAL, Lt Mark V. Nelson USN, Lance Corp Heinz Berger USMC, andSgt James A. Diamond, JR USA. This is Charley Jones writeup in the SAGA Magazine.

Master Sergeant Charles L. Jones proudly wears the title of Air Commando. He's trained as a parachutist to go in ahead of everyone else -- dropping to the ground to assist an assault landing or paradrop of airborne troops. He's something less than an excellent insurance risk..

Charlie Jones is also an expert in survival and escape, a qualified control tower operator and radioman, and is in top physical shape.

The rub is that in a huge military operation requiring his presence on the ground -- enemy-held ground -- before the vanguard arrives, Charlie Jones is under orders not to fight or to run. Completing the mission comes first. But if the need arises, Charlie is also trained to defend himself with a rifle, pistol, knife -- or even with his bare hands.

Charlie is part of the Tactical Air Commands air commando operation which can be used for either counter-insurgency or conventional shooting wars. For the Air Force, this is a somewhat new concept.

Jones got his first taste of this sort of warfare in South Vietnam last year. He was landed in the jungle with a combined American and South Vietnamese Special Forces team to direct close-support aerial operations against Viet Cong units. The enemy had shot down the helicopter which had brought Charlie and his team to the front. They were on their own.

Aircraft were to arrive over the target later that day and Charlie had to be in position with his radio to observe and guide the air strike from the ground. This is what happened, in his own words:

"Ten of us took off with ammo, supplies and radio toward the target. It was a slow, hacking trip through the jungle, dodging Viet Cong booby traps like poisoned bamboo pongi stakes sharpened to a point that would pierce even an elephants tough hide."

"We finally arrived close to the target. I set up the radio and we awaited the arrival of the close-support aircraft that would blast the Viet Cong concentration before Vietnamese Army units moved in for the final clean-up. The enemy surrounding us knew we were present and attacked."

Firing an AR-15, an infantry weapon, Jones and his team managed to hold off the attacking Viet Cong. The sergeant kept glancing at his watch. It was almost time. He opened up the radio and began advising the planes to come in from a particular direction.

"Show identifications panels so we wont hit you," the flight leader radioed back.

"We can't," Jones replied, Were under attack. "I'll guide you in."

The aircraft began diving. The Skyraiders, piloted by South Vietnamese Air Force pilots, roared in and loosed rockets and strafed with machine guns. The jets, flown by Americans, screamed down and napalm slammed into the area, rolling through like a tidal wave, even into the detachment headed by the air commando guiding the aircraft to their target.

Hard on the heels of the air attack came the mortars signaling the arrival of the Vietnamese Army troops. The machine-gun and rifle fire indicated that the troops of the search and clear operation were closing in. Jones huddled and waited trying to raise the ground element on the radio and make sure they knew where he was before they bombarded his position by mistake.

Ground combat for the air commandos is just one of their many duties. They also help build airstrips, dispense medical assistance to Vietnamese peasants and work at a number of odd missions not generally part of the Air Forces domain.

Along with carrying the war to the enemy, Master Sergeant Jones has brought civilization to out-of-the-war corners of South Vietnam. He summed it up when he was asked whether the results were worth the risks. "As the helicopter lifted me off that stinking mud pile on the beginning of my rotation back to the States," he recalls, "I thought that more than just the results of my efforts -- a working airstrip -- was left there. A new degree of spirit and hope seemed to have been born in the minds and hearts of the villagers where this link with the outside world came to life."


Gene Rossel
aircommando1@ earthlink. net

EOM

We Shall Remember Them

Anne
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