By Matthew M. Peek, Military Collection Archivist, State Archives of North Carolina
Everette Harvey Jones was born on April 4, 1923, in Raleigh, NC, to Otis Vance and Irma Camelia Swindell Jones. By 1930, the Jones family was living in Raleigh, where Otis Jones was working as a salesman at a drug store. By 1940, Otis Jones was working as a salesman for an automobile retail company of some sort. Everette Jones attended and graduated from Broughton High School.in Raleigh in 1941. After high school, he worked as a messenger boy or office errand boy for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, working out of the railroad’s yard in downtown Raleigh.
After the United States entered into World War II, Everette Jones would eventually enlist in the U.S. Army at Fort Bragg, NC, on January 20, 1943. He was sent for basic training to Camp Robinson, Arkansas. By later February 1943, Jones was going through field artillery training at the Field Artillery Replacement Center at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, attached to Battery C, 26th Battalion, 6th Regiment.
WWII 259.B4.F3.1: Snapshot of four U.S. Army soldiers posing inside of their barracks at the Field Artillery Replacement Center at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on a Sunday, March 28, 1943, during World War II. Pictured are (left to right) a soldier named Ashmore; R. R. Kingland of California; Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC; and Henry W. Shields of Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Caption on the back of the photograph reads: “This one was taking in the barracks Sunday so you can get an idea Have we spend Sunday. The one on my left is Kingland. He is from California. Sleep next to me. The one on my right is Shields. He is from Penn. The other is Ashmore”.
From Everette H. Jones Papers, WWII 259, WWII Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC.
WWII 259.B2.F4.1: Snapshot of U.S. Army serviceman Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC, wearing an M1 helmet, kneeling down holding a Browning automatic rifle at a firing range at the Field Artillery Replacement Center at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on April 15, 1943, while he was going through training during World War II.
WWII 259.B4.F3.4: Snapshot of U.S. Army soldier Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC, aiming a rifle at the firing range at the Field Artillery Replacement Center at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on April 16, 1943, during World War II. Caption on back of photograph reads: “‘Dead Eye Pel’ This is a real gun arty. experts shoot it ha! ha! Is a real gun though. shoot sim auto or autom. An boy is it heavy-15 lb and 9 ounces”.
After a rapid training regimen, Jones sailed for service in the Pacific Theater aboard the troop transport and Liberty steamship SS Lew Wallace in June 1943. His ship arrived at New Caledonia archipelago on July 5, 1943, where he was sent to the 6th Replacement Depot. On July 20, Jones learned of his being attached with the rank of Private to the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company, which served under the XIII Bomber Command of the 13th Air Force, U.S. Army Air Forces. He had to travel by the transport ship SS J. H. Kinkade to his new unit’s duty station on Guadalcanal, arriving there on August 1, 1943.
WWII 259.B3.F4.6: Snapshot of four shirtless U.S. Army Air Forces servicemen from the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company, 13th Air Force, two of whom are wearing grass skirts, posing outside holding a sign reading “Merry Xmas and A Happy New Year 1943” on the island of Guadalcanal around December 1943 in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Pictured is Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC (second from left).
WWII 259.B4.F3.5: Snapshot of U.S. Army Air Forces servicemen Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC, posing kneeling down next to a palm tree near a partly-constructed camp building in an unidentified 13th Air Force camp on an unidentified island somewhere in the Pacific Theater in 1943 during World War II. Photograph taken while Jones was serving with the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company, 13th Air Force.
WWII 259.B3.F2.2: Snapshot of four U.S. Army Air Forces servicemen from the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company, 13th Air Force, posing outside the open door of the company’s Orderly Room building in an unidentified 13th Air Force camp on an unidentified island somewhere in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Pictured is Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC (second from right). Photograph taken while Jones was serving with the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company during the war.
WWII 259.B3.F2.2: 5Small photograph of a naked U.S. Army Air Forces serviceman Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC, sitting on the shoulders of another unidentified serviceman as the two were swimming in the water along the coast of the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Photograph taken while Jones was serving with the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company, 13th Air Force, Army Air Forces.
WWII 259.B3.F2.9: Snapshot of a group of U.S. Army Air Forces serviceman from the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company, 13th Air Force, posing together next to a pile of freshly harvested logs chained together that these men helped cut down for use for timber to build portions of their military camp and for other purposes on an unidentified island somewhere in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Pictured is Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC (third from left). Photograph taken while Jones was serving with the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company during the war.
WWII 259.B2.F12.8: Snapshot looking at the interior of a military sawmill on an unidentified island somewhere in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Several Army Air Forces personnel are seen around the mill. Photograph taken or collected by U.S. Army Air Forces serviceman Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC, while he was serving with the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company, 13th Air Force, U.S. Army Air Forces.
While on Guadalcanal from January to June 1944, Jones’ unit performed surveying, designing, and construction projects for the 13th Air Force on the island. This included conducting geodetic studies; making surveys for drainage projects, runways, hospitals, and camp sites; and constructing facilities for the AAF. Jones’ military work specialty was listed as general carpenter in his records. Their work also including improving the Sperry gunsight, which was crucial for use in accurate bombing of targets by the U.S. Everette Jones remained on Guadalcanal until June 5, 1944, when his unit left for their new camp at Los Negros Island in the Admiralty Islands around June 6 or 7, 1944.
WWII 259.B3.F6.7: Snapshot of U.S. Army Air Forces serviceman John E. Dryna of Wildwood, Pennsylvania, posing leaning on the directional signs indicating the direction to the offices of the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company, 13th Air Force, on an unidentified island possibly Guadalcanal] somewhere in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Dryna served in the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company with Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC.
WWII 259.B3.F11.5: Photograph of a group of U.S. Army Air Forces servicemen with the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company, 13th Air Force, posing on and around the front of the theater stage they recently constructed on an unidentified 13th Air Force military camp on an unidentified island somewhere in the Pacific Theater during World War II. A sign hanging on the side of the stage reads: “Constructed By 905th Engrs.” Pictured is Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC (far left, back row standing).
WWII 259.B3.F11.3: Photograph of the theater stage recently constructed by members of the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company, 13th Air Force, U.S. Army Air Forces, on an unidentified 13th Air Force military camp on an unidentified island somewhere in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Photograph taken or collected by U.S. Army Air Forces serviceman Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC, while he was serving with the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company.
WWII 259.B3.F11.21: Photograph of U.S. Army Air Forces serviceman Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC, posing outside in the middle of a 13th Air Force camp on the Moluccan Islands [or Moluccas] on March 4, 1945, in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Photograph taken while Jones was serving with the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company, 13th Air Force, U.S. Army Air Forces.
On August 30, 1944, he left with some members of his unit for their new camp at Hollandia in Dutch New Guinea. Jones left with his unit from Hollandia on September 29, 1944, and landed by aircraft on the island of Noemfoor in Dutch New Guinea on the same day. Jones moved again to the island of Morotai in the Moluccan Islands on October 10, 1944. He and his unit would be stationed on Moluccas through at least March 1945.
WWII 259.B2.F7.4: Snapshot of the sign for Clark Field Air Strip No. 2, mounted on the roof of a U.S. Army Air Forces building near the runway at Clark Field on Luzon Island, the Philippines, around 1946 during World War II. Photograph taken or collected by U.S. Army Air Forces serviceman Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC, while he was serving with the 13th Air Force, U.S. Army Air Forces, at Clark Field.
WWII 259.B2.F6.18: Photograph showing the various stalls and vendors inside the Tacloban Market in Tacloban City on Leyte, the Philippines, in 1946 during World War II. Photograph taken or collected by U.S. Army Air Forces serviceman Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC, while he was serving with the 905th Engineer Air Force Headquarters Company, 13th Air Force, U.S. Army Air Forces, while they were stationed in the Philippines [identification written in photo album].
Sometime by the end of spring of 1945, Jones’ unit ended up stationed in the Philippines. Little detail is known about duty stations or work responsibilities for Jones during most of 1945. By the end of 1945 with the Japanese’s surrender, he was attached to the 1951st Engineers Aviation Utility Company, as he was being prepared for mustering out of service.
Jones left from the Pacific Theater on November 28, 1945, to return to the United States aboard the troop transport ship SS Santa Monica. He arrived in San Francisco, California, on December 18, 1945. Everette Jones was sent to Fort Bragg, NC, where he was honorably discharged on January 2, 1946.
WWII 259.B4.F3.13: Souvenir photograph of three former U.S. servicemen, wearing civilian clothes, sitting at a table smoking and having drinks in the Casino Royal Chinese Restaurant on 14th Street and H. Street NW in Washington, D.C., in February 1946 after World War II. Pictured is Everette H. Jones of Raleigh, NC (left), taken just over a month after his honorable discharge from the U.S. Army Air Forces. Photograph was removed from a cardboard frame containing handwritten messages to Jones written inside from three women with their first names listed as Dana, Arlene, and Anne [Photograph printed on: February 13. 1946].
After the war, Jones used his savings to help his parents buy a home in Raleigh, and lived with them until 1951. His parents had lost their home during the Great Depression because they did not have enough money to pay their taxes. Jones went back to work at the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, working as a clerk by 1949. He remained in this position into the 1950s, eventually moving up in the railroad.
On June 10, 1951, Everette Jones married Gladys Mae Robinson Shaw in Raleigh. Gladys had previously been married to a WWII officer at the end of the war, but the couple divorced by 1951. She had moved with her parents to Raleigh when she was 8 years old, growing up in the city during WWII after her father had died. Both Everette and Gladys Jones worked for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (later CSX after mergers), with Everette retiring in 1983. Everette H. Jones died on July 27, 2020, in Raleigh, NC, and was buried in Montlawn Memorial Park in the same city.
You can learn more about Jones’ life and service by exploring the Everette H. Jones Papers (WWII 259) in the WWII Papers of the Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina. A large selection of more than 550 photographs taken or collected by Everette Jones while serving with the 13th Air Force in the Pacific Theater have been digitized, and available to view online in the State Archives’ Flickr page here.
