Frank Cazenove Jones, Jr. was born on October 23, 1920. He was the son of Frank Cazenove Jones and Helen Griffith Jones.
In May 1941, Jones enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Before being called for training, he finished his Sophomore year at Trinity College, Hartford, where he had been a member of the Varsity Football and swimming teams. Entering the Air Corps in October 1941, Jones received his wings and commission as Second Lieutenant at Kelly Field, Texas, the following April. Then, at Hamilton Field, in California, he became a member of a Fighter Squadron, flying P-38's, which went overseas in August 1942.
The next eighteen months, Jones and his squadron spent in Iceland, stationed at an airfield near Reykjavik. Jones was promoted to First Lieutenant and was awarded the Air Medal. Then, in February 1944, the squadron was transferred to England, leaving its planes in Iceland. While they were waiting for their new planes to arrive, Jones happened to meet J. A. Clark, Jr., then a Major in the famous "Eagle Squadron" of the R.A.F. which, renamed, had become part of the 8th Air Force on America's entry into the war, and with Clark's assistance succeeded in transferring to the latter squadron, flying P-51's.
On his first combat mission with his new outfit, Jones, according to American newspaper reports, dove five miles through the air to shoot down his first German plane. This was only the beginning of a brilliant career as a fighter pilot. Newspaper reports vary slightly as to the number of enemy planes destroyed by Jones, but he has been credited in some of them with 7-1/2% shot down from the air, 7 destroyed on the ground, all in the space of little more than two months, during which time he was awarded four Clusters to his Air Medal, was given the Distinguished Flying Cross, recommended for a Cluster to the Distinguished Flying Cross, promoted to Captain and made Deputy Squadron Commander.
In July, he participated in the first shuttle bombing of Germany, from England to Russia to Italy to England-with a raid from Italy over Roumania, where he shot down two German planes.
On August 8th, Jones went on what was to have been his last combat mission before a 30-day leave. A German convoy off Stavenga on its way down the coast of Norway was to be attacked. In the fighting that took place, Jones' plane was hit by an antiaircraft fire while strafing an airdrome in Sola, Norway. His engine gave out over the North Sea, and he was forced to bail out. He was not seen to surface.
Cpt Jones was declared Missing in Action. His name is memorialized at the Tablets of the Missing, Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov, 4thfightergroupassociation.org