![]() The young officer was severely injured by the explosion, which plunged the third deck compartment - where the men were - into smoke-filled darkness. Jones and the other men were on the third deck passing ammunition up ladders to the battery - each piece was 5 inches long and weighed about 50 pounds - when a bomb exploded on the second deck. When Jones realized a torpedo had damaged the mechanical hoists that load ammunition to the ship’s antiaircraft gun battery, he led a group of men on a mission to manually supply the ammo. ![]() In the first few minutes of the attack, Jones rescued a sailor from a smoke-filled compartment and led an anti-aircraft battery in firing on Japanese planes, according to the National World War II Museum. Quickly, the ship was hit by two torpedoes. Jones had just relieved the junior officer of the deck and had begun his duties when the raid started. Like many other ships that day, the California's commanding and executive officers weren't aboard since the night before was a liberty night for many. Pearl Harbor's Battleship Row, where the ship was moored alongside many others, became the prime target of the Japanese. Jones was still stationed on the California on Dec. His fiancee, Joanne, eventually joined him, and they married the following summer. 14, 1940, and sent to join the battleship USS California at Pearl Harbor. He was then commissioned as an ensign on Nov. Jones completed two years of college before receiving his midshipman's training. Jones, was a Navy captain, which may have inspired the younger man to join the Naval Reserve in 1935 when he was only 17. 21, 1918, and grew up in Los Angeles, California.
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