MIA- Sgt. John Robert Jones

Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: raw

data from the 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)

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 reconnaissaince teams remained actively engaged in their 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 it's 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 Sgt. Jon R. Cavaiani and Sgt. John R. Jones with 23 commandos defending the mountaintop. At about 400 hours on June 5, Jones and Cavaiani 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, Cavaiani played dead as NVA soldiers came in looking for survivors. As his bunker was set on fire, Cavaiani 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 Sgt. John R. Jones, dead or alive. He is among nearly 2,500 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.

"In honor of the men and women of the armed forces of the United States who served in the Vietnam War. The names of those who gave their lives and those who remain missing are inscribed in the order that they were taken from us. "

~Preamble of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial