Bio, Jones, Louis F.

JONES, LOUIS FARR

Remains Returned 11/20/2000
ID's 11/26/2001
Family has NOT accepted ID ORIGINALLY. See 2004 story below.

Name: Louis Farr Jones
Rank/Branch: O4/US Air Force
Unit:
Date of Birth: 29 December 1925
Home City of Record: San Angelo TX (family in Fairfax Co. VA)
Date of Loss: 29 November 1967
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 163700N 1060800E (XD220269)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: F4C
Refno: 0929
Other Personnel In Incident: (pilot recovered)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 October 1990 from one or more
of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources: Washington Star and
Salina (KS) Journal, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 2020.

SYNOPSIS: Radicalization can be an instant process. For Mrs. Mitch Jones, it
came the minute President Nixon said he would keep a small force of American
troops in South Vietnam as long as the communists held American prisoners of
war. Mrs. Jones quit her job, sent out hundreds of letters to enlist support
and became a full time, unpaid lobbyist for peace and helped form a group
called "Families for Immediate Release." Mrs. Jones was convinced Nixon's
policy would continue the war forever - and that the prisoner problem would
then be solved - they would die waiting for the war to end.

Mitch Jones' husband, Louis, a 22-year veteran of the military, was shot
down over Laos on November 29, 1967. He was the bombardier/navigator onboard
an F4C Phantom fighter/bomber whose pilot was apparently rescued. The
aircraft was downed in Savannakhet Province about 5 miles southwest of the
city of Sepone, Laos. Mrs. Jones had not received any word of her husband
since that day, although she traveled to Laos to inquire in 1969.

Mitch Jones had been through this before. Her brother, Lt. Frank N.
Mitchell, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, had been declared
Missing In Action in Korea. Her family struggled for years against a growing
tide of indifference to her brother and the other men missing in Korea. She
watched helplessly as the war ended, and the men were written off one by
one. She had lived her years as a military wife knowing her husband could
also be captured or become missing, but not fully realizing that the
handling of the American POWs in Korea was not to be unique. Final
recognition came when she realized Nixon would continue the war with no
seeming regard for her husband or the other POWs.

When the war ended, not a single man held in Laos was released, although
many were known to have survived. Over 18 years has passed since Mitch Jones
began to realize her country was not going to bring her husband home. Still,
no word of Louis Farr has been received, and the U.S. engages in publicity
campaigns to renew relationships with the countries of Southeast Asia, while
ignoring and debunking mounting evidence that Americans are still alive in
Laos and Vietnam.

Mrs. Jones no longer walks the halls of Congress, and since an 18-year-old
clipping described her activities, she has disappeared from public view.
Louis Jones, if he is alive, must also have decided, in disappointment, that
the country he proudly served would not bring him home.

The widow of a San Angelo Air Force pilot shot down in Laos in 1967 and
declared missing in action is not convinced that officials have found her
husband's remains.

Family closes painful chapter
Fremont man to bury his Air Force pilot dad, shot down and killed in Vietnam
37 years ago

By Sandhya Somashekhar
STAFF WRITER

Monday, March 01, 2004 - In two weeks, a few members of Col. Louis Farr
Jones' family will huddle over a flag-draped coffin at Golden Gate National
Cemetery in Colma. "Taps" will be played. Jet planes will soar overhead in
the missing-man formation......

MAJ LOUIS FARR JONES

Return to Service Member Profiles

Conflict
Service
Status
Date of Accounting

VIETNAM WAR
UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
Accounted For
11/26/2001

On November 26, 2001, Joint Task Force–Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Major Louis Farr Jones, missing from the Vietnam War.

Major Jones entered the U.S. Air Force from Texas and served with the 558th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On November 29, 1967, he was the aircraft commander aboard an F-4C Phantom II (tail number 64-0701, call sign "Whiskey 32") on a strike mission against enemy targets in Savannakhet Province, Laos. While over the target area, his aircraft was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire, killing Maj Jones. Search efforts could not recover his remains at the time. In 2000, the Vietnamese government repatriated human remains associated with this incident, and in 2001, U.S. investigators were able to identify Maj Jones from these remains.

Major Jones is memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.

Maj LOUIS FARR JONES

Unit
Country of Loss
LAOS
Home of Record TX