Clyde Jones was born in Cordova, Alabama in 1923. He was raised in nearby Windfield, Alabama, where his father worked for the mail service and his mother was a housewife. He recalls Windfield as a “wonderful place to grow up,” though he also recalls that the Great Depression made it rough for everybody. He and a friend shared an interest in world events and kept current via a radio broadcast. When Germany invaded Poland, he remembers thinking that he would likely be involved; his father had served in World War I and his older brother was in the U. S. Navy. He remembers hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor during a gathering of his friends at a cafe; the mood among them was that they all wanted to join and serve in the military. When he first got out of high school, he had a job as a sheet metal worker with the Martin aircraft company. He had reported to his draft board when he enlisted in the Navy; he did so to follow in the footsteps of his father and brother. After enlisting, he was sent to Bainbridge, Maryland for boot camp.

While at U. S. Navy boot camp, Clyde Jones was asked for his duty preference; he remembers asking to be an aerial gunner since he had always wanted that type of assignment. He was accepted for it and sent to Jacksonville, Florida for approximately one year of training [Annotator’s Note: he does not remember any specific date]. During this time, he recalls receiving training in radios, electronics, and some gunnery. Following this, he was sent to South Carolina for gunnery school, where he learned gun maintenance and had daily flights to practice his gunnery skills. He also became part of a crew during this time. The crew was sent out to Moffett Field, California, where they flew day and night patrols in a Lockheed Ventura aircraft. After some three months here, they are sent to the western Pacific; due to range limitations on the aircraft, both the plane and crew are transported via ship. Arriving in Hawaii, he remembers picking up the aircraft and flying from there to the island of Tinian in the Marianas Islands.

Arriving on the island of Tinian, Jones and his crew are immediately told to fuel and arm their plane in preparation for attacking three Japanese airplanes located on a nearby island. Before they are able to do so, they are told that a group of U. S. Marine Corps aircraft successfully engaged them. He recounts that their missions out of Tinian were to patrol the waters around the island and strike any Japanese units they may encounter. He discusses one mission in particular that was directed against a radar station located on mainland Japan [Annotator’s Note: he doesn’t specify an exact location]. As part of this discussion, he describes flying to, and out of, Iwo Jima at various times. As they approach their target, he sees a ship with personnel loading or unloading stores and he reports it to the pilot. Told to strafe them, he does so and is surprised to note that they continuing their loading. He recalls that after the pilot fires the plane’s rockets at the radar station, they return and drop two bombs on the ship but he doesn’t recall if any significant damage was inflicted.

Jones recounts a series of flights he flew that were in search of survivors from the USS Indianapolis (CA-35). He describes being told that the crew would be gone for a few days, but that wasn’t an extraordinary occurrence—they often went to outlying islands for patrol missions. His and another plane flew to a smaller island [Annotator’s Note: he doesn’t recall the name] and that they flew from there for a day or so. At the time, they hadn’t been told of anything specific for which to search; he remembers that this, too, was not unusual. Finally, the co-pilot of the other plane sights what turns out to be survivors of the cruiser’s sinking and they radio back to their base the survivor’s location.

In this segment, Jones remembers that while they didn’t know specifics about the atomic bomb, they knew something was going on because the airstrip that was adjacent to the Quonset hut where his crew slept was being extended. On the morning that it was dropped on Hiroshima [Annotator’s Note: 6 August 1945], his crew had launched at daylight, having heard the B-29 take off some hours earlier. They flew toward Japan, and later in the morning he heard radio traffic describing the total devastation of the city by a single bomb. When they returned from their flight, the duty officer gathered the crew and confirmed the information. They next flew to Okinawa, where they were fully expecting the invasion of mainland Japan when the war ended. He remembers returning to the United States soon thereafter, where he was assigned to a base in the Mojave Desert in California. During this time, he recalls a very easy lifestyle with little duties being assigned. He is discharged in late 1945 and goes to the University of Alabama using the G. I. Bill. He is very proud of his service; he feels that it was his patriotic duty. His military experience exposed him to many things he would have otherwise not seen, including many places and locations. He feels it’s important to continue to study and learn about World War II.