Herbert C. Jones

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Herbert Charpiot Jones
21 January 1918 – 7 December 1941
Ensign Herbert Charpiot Jones
Place of birth	Los Angeles, California
Place of death	KIA at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Allegiance	United States Navy Reserve
Years of service	1935 – 1941
Rank	Ensign
Unit	USS California (BB-44)
Battles/wars	Attack on Pearl Harbor
Awards	Medal of Honor

Herbert Charpiot Jones (21 January 1918 – 7 December 1941) was an officer in the United States Navy who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Jones was born 21 January 1918 at Los Angeles, California and enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve 14 May 1935. He was commissioned Ensign 14 November 1940 and reported to the battleship California (BB-44), at Pearl Harbor 2 weeks later.

On 7 December 1941, the 23-year-old Ensign was about to relieve the officer-of-the-deck on California when Japanese planes swooped in to attack. In the first wave, a torpedo and a bomb hit the ship. Ens. Jones dived into a smoke-filled hatchway and crawled along oil-slick decks to rescue a stricken sailor before being temporarily overcome by fumes. Reviving, Ensign Jones saw an antiaircraft battery without a leader and, staggering to his feet, took command. As a second wave of Japanese planes came in, the young officer fired his guns until all their ammunition was expended. Since the torpedo had put California's ammunition hoist out of action, Ens. Jones quickly organized a party of volunteers to go below and pass the ammunition up by hand. The vitally needed shells had just begun to reach the battery when a bomb hit the ship and mortally wounded him.

In 1943, the destroyer escort USS Herbert C. Jones (DE-137) was named in his honor.

Citation:

For conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage, and complete disregard of his own life, above and beyond the call of duty, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. Ens. Jones organized and led a party, which was supplying ammunition to the antiaircraft battery of the U.S.S. California after the mechanical hoists were put out of action when he was fatally wounded by a bomb explosion. When 2 men attempted to take him from the area which was on fire, he refused to let them do so, saying in words to the effect, "Leave me alone! I am done for. Get out of here before the magazines go off."