Marine Corps Master Sgt. Bruce Jones talks about the importance of setting goals during a TEDx event at Camp Kinser, Okinawa, Aug. 23, 2025. (Ryan M. Breeden/Stars and Stripes)
Master Sgt. Bruce Jones took the stage over the weekend at the Surfside club on the Marine Corps’ Camp Kinser to relate how a severe motorcycle accident upended his life.
Speaking at a TEDx event, sponsored Saturday by the University of Maryland Global Campus, Jones was one of 11 people to talk over 3½ hours on Saturday.
Four years ago, he collided with a taxi that turned into his path on an Okinawa street.
“The doctors told me I had 14 months for rehabilitation,” Jones said during his presentation. “[At] the end of that 14 months I would be medically separated from the United States armed forces.”
Faced with a possible end to his Marine Corps career, and loss of mobility due to his injuries, Jones was determined to get back on his feet, rejoin his family and resume his career. He said he refused to let the June 2020 accident define him, so he set goals along each phase of his recovery.
Volunteers and presenters pose during a University of Maryland Global Campus-sponsored TEDx event at Camp Kinser, Okinawa, Aug. 23, 2025. (Ryan M. Breeden/Stars and Stripes)
Jones was back on Okinawa after five months, and one year after the accident, he was walking the 80-mile length of the island, according to an April 2022 news release from Marine Corps Installations Pacific.
Today, Jones is a human resources supervisor with the Marine aviation logistics squadron on Okinawa. He also posts inspirational messages on his TikTok account, TopJonesInspires.
“Set goals for yourself; I’m infatuated with goals,” he told Stars and Stripes at the event. “I never want it to be a catchphrase. I want people to be genuine of the goals they set, whether they’re personal or professional and actually hold themselves to that.”
University of Maryland business professor Greg Evans and one of his students, Air Force spouse Mark Witten, organized the TEDx event, selecting the speakers from 54 applicants, Witten said by phone Thursday.
Speakers included three active-duty service members, University of Maryland professors, Department of Defense Education Activity principals on Okinawa and local military community leaders, he said.
“What started as a quick quip in a conversation between a student and a teacher in a classroom, in nine months became a full-fledged event,” Witten said.
Department of Defense Education Activity principal Will Penner speaks during the TEDx event at Camp Kinser, Okinawa, Aug. 23, 2025. The talks were sponsored by University of Maryland Global Campus. (Ryan M. Breeden/Stars and Stripes)
Approximately 60 people attended the event, which concluded with a three-hour networking reception. Marine Cpl. Joshua Carr and Lance Cpl. Peter Penajasso, both stationed at Camp Kinser, said they found a lot to unpack in the TED Talks.
“There were several amazing and inspiring stories with various backgrounds, and it was convenient to have it right on base,” Penajasso said at the event.
“There’s something to learn from everyone, and the TEDx enables growth as well as an opportunity to network,” Carr added.
Saturday’s TEDx event was the second on Okinawa and the first open to the public, Witten said. The first took place in 2013.
The event was livestreamed and a video is available on the university’s global campus Okinawa Facebook page.
“This is another event situation to make life as normal as possible, but also to help people improve and become better while serving in their time overseas — to hopefully make them, as humans, a little better,” Witten said.
Stars and Stripes reporter Brian McElhiney contributed to this report.
