David M. Jones
David M. Jones (December 18, 1913 – November 25, 2008) served with distinction as a pilot and general officer, first with the U.S. Army Air Corps (he entered pilot training in June 1937) and later with the United States Air Force (created on September 18, 1947). His record during World War II includes being one of the Doolittle Raiders whose exploits in April 1942 were dramatized in the film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. He then flew combat missions over North Africa, where he was shot down. He was a German prisoner of war for two and a half years, helping with the April 1944 mass escape at Stalag Luft III, which was dramatized in the 1963 movie The Great Escape. In his last assignment with the Air Force, Jones was the commander of the Air Force Eastern Test Range in Cape Kennedy, Florida, as well as the Department of Defense Manager for Manned Space Flight Support Operations. He retired from the Air Force in 1973. Early years; education David Mudgett Jones was born on December 18, 1913, in Marshfield, Oregon, the son of David Arthur (Dade) Jones and Grace Mudgett. His father Dade Jones, the son of Welsh immigrants, homesteaded