Alan Walter

Alan Walter Jones, born 1894, in Glendale, Washington, attended the university of Washington at Seattle where he was educated as a Chemical Engineer. During WWI in 1917, Jones was commissioned as a 2^nd Lieutenant in the army. He served in Europe with the 43^rd Infantry. After The Great War he also served with the 45^th Infantry. He attended several Infantry and Artillery Schools and after he made a tour in Hawaii, he was assigned Assistant Division Commander of the 90^th Infantry Division.  In early March of 1943 he organised the new 106^th Infantry Division at Camp Jackson ,S.C., trained it and went over to Europe with his Division to participate in the Battle of the Bulge. General Jones commanded the 106^th, nickname "Golden Lion"    till the 22^nd of December 1944, when he suffered a heart attack and was succeeded by his assistant Commander, Brigadier-General Herbert Towle Perrin (see Perrin).  At the end of the war the division had seen 63 days of combat. It had suffered 417 KIA, 1,278 WIA, and 53 died of wounds. It lost 6,697 personnel taken prisoner. Of that total, 6,500 POWs were eventually returned to American military control after being released at war's end. The remainder were listed MIA. Among General Jones’ decorations are: the purple Heart, the Legion of Honour and the French Croix de Guerre. He was a member of the Army and Navy Club and the 106^th Infantry Division Association, where he was a gladly seen guest at reunions. General Alan Jones passed away at the age of 73 on 22-01-1969 after struggling with cancer. He is buried with his wife Alys, born Pickering, who died very old age 99, in 1998, at Arlington Military Cemetery, Section 11. His close neighbours in Section 11 are the Generals Henry Aurand (see Aurand), Duane Beeson (see Beeson) the Flyer Ace, Evans Carlson (see Carlson) and John Dahlquist (see Dahlquist).