- Engineman 3rd Class, US Navy

The combat role of the US Navy in Vietnam consisted mostly of patrolling the coast and the numerous waterways throughout the country. Johnny Jones served as a black-beret wearing, Brown Water sailor, known as Mobil Riverines, who sailed on river patrol boats, called PBRs, that navigated the waterways of the Mekong Delta. Assigned to Operation Game Warden, River Patrol Forces-Task Force 116, and mainly patrolled the Dong Tien Canal, or what the Americans called the Grand Canal. Duties of those boats included the clandestine insertion of Navy Seal teams, or Army Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols, the transportation and assistance of Army assault units, as well as river patrols where they boarded boats and sampans searching for illegal weapons and personnel. The PBRs were heavily armed with machine guns and regularly returned fire when fired upon from the banks of the river or in support of Army grunts.
In mid September, 1970, the boats of River Section 522, call sign ‘Woodholly,' Johnny's unit, were ‘nested' together near the mid-point of the Grand Canal in Gia Dinh Province, as they prepared to embark on another night operation. There had been big rainstorms shortly before, and the river was running high, with the current flowing swift and very dangerous. It was late in the day, getting near dark, and the crewmen had just finished chow. Just before they were ready to pull out of their moors for a night mission, Johnny and another sailor were on the bow, doing what bored energetic young men tend to do to pass the time, engaging in a friendly bit of wrestling. The strong current caused the boat to rock, and Johnny slipped on the wet deck and fell overboard. His crewmates frantically tried to grab him, but before any of them could jump in with a rope to rescue him, the current had swept him between, and then under the nested boats, where he quickly disappeared from sight. It would be two days before his body was discovered by Vietnamese farmers, and recovered by the sailors of his unit. Johnny was declared dead September 22, 1970, at the age of 22.