Published : Aug. 18, 2013 - 20:24
STERLING, Virginia (AP) ― David C. Jones, a retired Air Force general who helped set in motion a far-reaching reorganization of the U.S. military command while serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has died at 92.
The general’s son, David Curtis Jones, said Wednesday that his father died Saturday at a military retirement community in Potomac Falls, Va. He had Parkinson’s disease.
David C. Jones
During the Korean War, he flew more than 300 B-29 bomber missions over North Korea and also flew aerial tankers for midair refueling. After the war, he served for two years as a top aide to Gen. Curtis LeMay, an architect of U.S. air attacks during World War II and then the commander of the Strategic Air Command.
According to the Air Force website, Jones served in Vietnam as deputy commander for operations and then as vice commander of the Seventh Air Force.
He later commanded U.S. Air Forces in Europe, receiving a fourth star in 1971.
Three years later, President Richard Nixon tapped Jones to be Air Force chief of staff. He led a reorganization of the command structure.
President Jimmy Carter appointed Jones as Joint Chiefs chairman in 1978 and again in 1980.
Jones completed his second term as Joint Chiefs chairman during the Reagan administration, and retired from the military in July 1982. Jones was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the board of the American Red Cross. He also served on the boards of General Electric and Youth Service, USA, Inc., and was on the Council on Foreign Relations.