Thomas Francis Jones, Sr., a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, served in the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1937-1940, after which he served in the United States Army Coast Artillery. Jones was stationed in Hawaii and saw action at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He was honorably discharged in 1945 and he married Ann Barras in Philadelphia in May of 1946.
Thomas F. Jones worked as a laborer for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) from 1937 to 1940. The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public works program launched by the Roosevelt administration to address the dual problems of "widespread unemployment by the nation's youth and neglect and unwise use of our once vast wealth of natural resources." (CCC album, F2) Jones, who was one of several children of a widowed mother, enrolled in the CCC on April 19, 1937, in Philadelphia, and was assigned to CCC Camp SP-19 at Baynesville, Virginia. Jones was honorably discharged after the expiration of his two-year term on March 31, 1939. Papers in the collection indicate that Jones carried a Seaman's Certificate of Identification from the U.S. Department of Commerce that was issued in May 1939, but it is not clear if he obtained work. Later in the year, on October 6, 1939, Jones re-enrolled in the CCC, once again in Philadelphia. He was assigned to work in camps in Velarde and Hatch, New Mexico, where his duties consisted of soil conservation. He served until March 28, 1940, when his six-month extension expired.
Jones enrolled in the United States Army and was stationed in Hawaii as a member of Battery C, 15th Coast Artillery during the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan. He was honorably discharged at the rank of Private First Class from the Army on July 12, 1945.
Biographical information derived from collection.
From the guide to the Thomas F. Jones, Sr. papers regarding the Civilian Conservation Corps and Pearl Harbor, 1937-1946, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)
