T SGT George Malcolm Jones
George Malcolm Jones was born on September 3, 1917 to Mr and Mrs Felix Jones of Lordsburg NM. He graduated from Lordsburg HS in 1935 and enrolled at NMAMC the following fall. He attended school for one year studying agriculture. After leaving school he returned to Lordsburg and lived with his parents until his marriage to Jane Graham Jones shortly prior to his enlistment. On January 6, 1941 he enlisted in the 200th Coast Artillery as it was being activated to federal service.
In August, the 200th CA was dispatched to the Philippines.
On December 8, 1941, only nine hours after the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor, the 200th CA engaged Japanese bombers at Clark Field and Fort Stotsenberg, becoming the first unit to go into action in defense of the U.S. flag in the Philippines. That evening, 500 soldiers from the original regiment of 1800 men were sent to provide additional air defense in Manila. This provisional force was christened the 515th Coast Artillery and became America’s first war-born regiment in World War II. T SGT Jones was assigned to Headquarters Battery of the 515th.
On April 9, 1942, the weakened survivors from the combined American and Filipino forces were unconditionally surrendered to the Japanese.
Most POWs were assembled in Mariveles at the southern tip of the Bataan peninsula and forced to march to San Fernando, Pampanga. Wounded men were assisted by able-bodied prisoners or carried on crude stretchers. Stragglers were beaten or killed. Civilians who showed mercy to the prisoners endured a similar fate. The incident covered a distance of 104 kilometers (65 miles) and became known as the Bataan Death March.
The final leg of the northward journey was completed inside stifling railway boxcars that took them to the prison set up at Camp O’Donnell. Most of the American POWs were eventually transferred to Cabanatuan. The captured soldiers were subjected to inhumane conditions. Death from malnutrition, disease and abuse was a common occurrence. More than 4,000 American POWs and 25,000 Filipino POWs died in these two camps alone.
In October 1944 as American forces were moving closer to the Philippines the Japanese engaged in transfer of those prisoners still deemed fit for duty as slave laborers to Japan and Manchuria. On October 11, 1944 T Sgt Malcolm Jones and about 1800 other prisoners boarded the Arisan Maru. The ship steamed that day to avoid allied aircraft only to return to Manila harbor on or about October 20th. The next day the Arisan Maru joined with a convoy sailing for Japan. This was happening at the same time as the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
On the dark moonless night of October 24, 1944, the Arisan Maru was struck amidships by torpedoes believed to have been fired from the submarine USS Shark. The seas were high and it was bitterly cold in the South China Sea. The remaining Japanese ships made no effort to save prisoners that escaped the sinking shop and were in the water. Of the 1782 prisoners of war on the ship only 8 survived the night. It was the largest loss of American lives at sea in the entire war.
Today T SGT George Malcolm Jones is memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery Tablet of the Missing. He was 27 years of age at the time of his death and left behind his spouse Jane Graham Jones.