Sergeant Calvin Solomon Jones

Early Life

Calvin Solomon Jones was born on June 26, 1927, in Southampton, Virginia, to Leila Britt Jones and Jimmie Jones. He had two step-siblings, Andrew and Goldie, and three full siblings, Dorothy, Jessie, and Leila. In 1930, the family lived in Southampton County. Jimmie was a farmer, and Leila worked as a laundress for a private family. Leila’s mother, Rosa Britt, also lived with the family and worked as a nurse and midwife.

Eventually, the family moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where Jones was raised in a home on Freemont Street that no longer exists.

Jones worked for Britchard Dairy in Norfolk before joining the U.S. Army.

Home Front

Norfolk, Virginia, is an extremely old city, dating to before the American Revolution. In the 1950s, Norfolk was a segregated city with two African American high schools. The city is a military community, home to Naval Station Norfolk, a key base where ships are built and repaired to support the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.

In addition to the naval base, the area is known for agricultural production, especially strawberries, and fishing. General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the Korean War, was buried in Norfolk, Virginia.

Military Experience

Jones enlisted in the U.S. Army on January 29, 1949. He trained at Fort Dix, New Jersey, from October 1949 to August 1950. He was then sent to Camp Stoneman, California, on August 18, 1950. Jones deployed to Pusan, Korea, as a member of Company K, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.

The 9th Infantry Regiment, known as the “Manchus” saw heavy fighting during this period, engaging in the Battle of Bloody Ridge (August 18 – September 5, 1951) and the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge (September 13 – October 15, 1951). On September 27, 1950, Jones was wounded in battle by a bayonet along the Naktong River and sent to the 8054th Evacuation Hospital in Pusan, Korea. Three days later, he was transferred to the 64th Field Hospital. He recovered and returned to his unit on October 2.

On November 25, 1950, the 9th Infantry Regiment was attacked by Chinese Communist forces along the Ch’ongch’on River. In the early morning hours of November 26, Jones was captured along with other soldiers of the 9th Infantry Regiment and became a Prisoner of War (POW). He was marched north to a POW camp along the Yalu River in North Korea.

His mother, Laila Jones, was notified that her son was missing in January 1951.

Commemoration

Jones and other prisoners were marched north to Camp #5 in Pyoktong, North Korea. Food and medical supplies were scarce. When released, U.S. medical personnel reported that Jones died of malnutrition and dysentery and was buried across the river from the camp in a mass grave. His date of death was determined to be February 28, 1951.

Prisoners who survived captivity were interviewed and debriefed following their release. On November 12, 1953, Laila Jones was notified that the military had determined her son had died in February 1951. In response to a later inquiry for additional medical records or other information that might help identify her son, she wrote a heartbreaking letter that she had no other records to share, because her son was, in her words, “perfec[t].”

His remains were not identified in the years following the Korean War. His name is engraved on the Honolulu Memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawai’i.

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