Herbert Charpiot Jones
Ensign, U.S. Navy
Medal of Honor Recipient
World War II

Ensign Herbert Charpiot Jones (21 January 1918 - 7 December 1941) was an officer in the U.S. Navy who was posthumously awarded the U.S. military's highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, for his actions during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Herbert Charpiot Jones was born on 21 January 1918 at Los Angeles, CA, and enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve on 14 May 1935. He was commissioned an Ensign on 14 November 1940 and reported to the battleship USS California (BB-44), at Pearl Harbor two 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. Ensign 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 anti-aircraft 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, 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.

Medal of Honor

Rank and organization: Ensign, U.S. Naval Reserve.

Place and date: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 7 December 1941.

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."

Honors

USS Herbert C. Jones (DE-137) was named in his honor. The ship was launched 19 January 1943 by the Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, TX; sponsored by Mrs. Joanne Ruth Jones, widow; and commissioned 21 July 1943, Lt. Comdr. Alfred W. Gardes, Jr., in command.

Death and Burial

Ensign Herbert Charpiot Jones was killed in action on 7 December 1941. He is buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, San Diego County, CA, in Section G, Grave 76.

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