James A. Jones

Colonel James Allison Jones completed his undergraduate studies at Presbyterian College, Clinton, South Carolina, where he graduated in 1943. A theology student, he was active in the ministerial club and practice preaching. He also was a member of the YMCA and the rifle team. | Following World War II and a year of teaching in the public schools of Hardin County, KY, Jones earned the Master of Arts degree in history at the University of Georgia in 1949 and did further graduate work at the University of Kentucky. | H wasemployed by the Department of the Army at Fort Knox, KY, and he served five years as a faculty development specialist at the United States Army Armor School. In 1953 he prepared a special text on staff research and writing for the Armor School. | Since April 1957 he has been director of Adult and Continuing Education at Fort Knox. The Education Center has an average enrollment of 3500 students, ranging from functional illiteracy and English-as-a-second-language through college. Several masters degrees and PhD programs are available. For fourteen years Jones was director of the University of Kentucky Fort Knox Center in addition to other duties. Eight colleges and universities operate at Fort Knox through his office. Eleven learning resource centers are supervised, offering military skills, foreign languages, and assistance in preparing for skill qualification testing. The latest CBI programs are taught using Control Data PLATO terminals; a total of 100 are available. The Director also has responsibility for providing education for all active army in Ohio and 96 countries of Kentucky. | In addition to managing the above activity, Jones has attended eight special management courses conducted by or for the U.S. Government. Upon completion of one of these, prepared by Harvard University, he was selected to instruct the course for the next session. The latest management course he completed was ALMC. Jones was detailed by the Federal Government as DOD Representative to attend and evaluate a management course offered by Florida Southern University to determine if the course should be added to the government inventory. He serves on the Alcohol and Drug Dependency Intervention Council and has completed two courses in this connection, one at the Army Medical Center, Brooke Army Hospital, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and one at Fort Knox. He helped organize the Fort Knox Employee Council, a management group, and for several years served as its chairman. | Jones conducted a pilot program for Department of the Army, which was later adopted, to include academic subjects as a part of military programs of instruction. He was in charge of the Defense Department’s pilot program for Project Transition, training Vietnam veterans for civilian jobs. | He was a member of the Adult Education Association USA, Phi Delta Kappa (Education honorary), and has served on many state, regional and national committees, including a national panel to study educational needs in the year 2000. He also belongs to the Association of the U.S. Army, The Retired Officers Association, the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, and the Sons of the American Revolution. He is a past president of the Armor Center Civic League and has served on its board of directors. He served on the Board of Directors of Hardin Memorial Hospital for several years and is on the Health Services Council at Ireland Army Community Hospital. | Colonel Jones’s military education includes four years of ROTC; Officer Candidate School; Officers’ Communication School; the Command and General Staff College; and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He served as instructor in an infantry training center, as an infantry platoon leader in combat in Europe, as aide-de-camp to the Commanding General, XXIII, U.S. Army Corps in Europe, and as aide to the Commanding General, Fort Knox. He also served as a staff officer in Okinawa and in Korea in 1946 and 1947. | Leaving active military service in 1947, he completed a total of twenty-eight years service in the Army Reserve. For five years he taught the Command and General Staff College Course, directed that Department three years, and for three years was Commandant of the 2074th Louisville USAR School. In 1973 he assisted the Millar Committee, an Australian military group, in setting up a viable reserve program. | Awards and Decorations include: the Reserve Medal w/2 Oak Leaf Cluster, the European Theater Medal w/2 Battle Stars, the Purple Heart, and the Meritorious Service Medal. | While serving at Fort Knox in 1946, Jones married Mary Josephine Richerson of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They have one son, James Allison Jones, Jr., who is a registered nurse, a CPR instructor and an EMT instructor in Lexington, Kentucky.