SGT Weldon Lee Jones

courtesy of Linda S. Johnson

SGT Weldon Lee Jones was born 22 Jul 1922 in what was then Nansemond County now Suffolk, Virginia. He was the oldest of the 6 children of Herbert Lee and Sallie Doughtie. Herbert worked in a brick kiln and later as a truck driver for the state highway department earning $1020 in 1939. Weldon left school at the 7th grade and went into the work force but it is unclear what he was doing.

Weldon enlisted in the Virginia National Guard on 22 Jul 1940 and served in M Company 116th Infantry and drilled in Emporia, Virginia. PVT Jones was federalized along with the rest of his unit in February 1941 and was sent to Fort George Meade, Maryland for inprocessing and training. He then trained with the unit near Fort Bragg, North Carolina in the Carolina maneuvers and at Camp Blanding, Florida before the unit was sent to England in September 1942. There he and the rest of the 116th underwent rigorous training including amphibious training in preparation for the amphibious assault planned to be part of the effort to liberate occupied France. PFC Jones was landed with his unit and fought with them in the bocage in Normandy. He was promoted to SGT on 21 Jun 1944 and in this leadership position he fought with the unit until wounded in the abdomen on 18 Jul 1944. Evacuated to a field hospital, he underwent surgery but died of his wounds on 21 Jul 1944.

SGT Jones was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in the Emporia Cemetery in Emporia, Virginia together with many family members. 

4 of Weldon's 5 brothers also served. William Horace Jones and Herbert Louis Jones both entered service in WW2 and retired as SGMs after 30-years. Alamance Jones served as a CPL in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Raleigh Ray Jones served in the U.S. Air Force in the Korean and Vietnam wars and retired as a TSGT.