KITZINGEN, Germany — Sgt. 1st Class Charles U. Jones loved to tell stories. Brash and friendly, he could spin them well.
“If you’ve spent more than five minutes with him, you’ve heard one of his many sapper stories, or how he laid a whole HMMT [truck] full of mines in an hour,” said 1st Sgt. Robert Brown, his close friend in the 1st Infantry Division’s 121st Signal Battalion.
Dozens of his friends gathered Thursday to remember the gregarious Jones and swap a few stories of their own. After surviving a hard yearlong tour in Iraq, he was struck and killed by a car early last Saturday morning as he crossed the street in front of Kitzingen’s Harvey Barracks. He was 30, married, the father of three children.
Jones — or “Jay” to his friends — was born into an Army family at Fort McClellan, Ala., but he called Columbus, Ga., home. He joined the Army in 1994 as a combat engineer, serving tours in South Korea and Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., before retraining as a switching-systems operator maintainer in 2001.
Those duties brought him to the 121st Signal in August 2002, where he became known as the squared-away section sergeant of Node Center 50 of Company A’s 1st Platoon. He dressed sharply, Brown recalled — on duty, his battle dress uniform always heavily starched; off duty, his jeans and polo shirt always freshly pressed.
Eighteen months later, Jones deployed with his unit to Iraq, where he survived a year of occasional mortar fire and frequent trips on the country’s dangerous highways.
“He was always there to volunteer for convoys in Iraq — I think mostly to see his friends,” recalled Sgt. 1st Class Walter Branyan, another friend, in a speech at Thursday’s service. “No matter where we traveled, from [Forward Operating Base] Summerall to FOB Warhorse, he always had to stop in just to say ‘hi’ to someone.”
Jones had been promoted to E-7 last December and recently completed a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Trinity University.
He is survived by his wife, Andrea; sons Deangello, 15, and Deaundre, 5; and daughter Deaundra, 7, who live in Columbus.
