• Jan. 2, 1910 – Oct. 24, 1944
• Cleveland, TN
• UT – 1928
  • Attended West Point from 1931 to 1935
• Major – Army
• 26th Cavalry Reg., Philippine Scouts. Commanded C Troop and HQ Troop. Taken prisoner, 1942. KIA when the USS Shark sank the Arisan Maru, a POW transport ship. 9 survived. Awarded the Silver Star.
• Wounded in the invasion, continued to fight but was struck with malaria
• Taken into the hills around Mariveles by Major Jim Blanning in May 1942, evading Japanese capture at the time and avoiding the Bataan Death March
• Captured in June 1942 and placed in the Cabanatuan prison camp
• During the transfer of prisoners in the Fall of 1944, he was on the ship Arisan Maru when it was sunk by the USS Shark. Only 9 survived. 
• Manila American Cemetery and Memorial at Manila, Philippines

Paul Montgomery Jones (Jan. 2, 1910 – Oct. 24, 1944) was born in Cleveland, Tennessee. He attended the University of Tennessee in 1928 before going on to West Point from 1931 to 1935. He was first assigned as a 2nd Lt. in the US Army’s 6th Cavalry at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, in the years before the war. He completed work at the Cavalry School in January 1940 and conducted cavalry maneuvers in Louisiana in the summer of 1940 under General Jonathan Wainwright before being assigned to the 26th Cavalry. The 26th Cavalry was a part of the United States Army’s Philippine Scouts stationed in the Philippines before the Japanese invasion in 1941. 

Jones had made the rank of Major and was commanding the Provisional Squadron of the regiment when the Japanese invaded in December 1941. Major Jones played a leading role in facilitating the organization of the regiment that allowed for their defensive withdrawal on the Bataan Peninsula. He was wounded in combat during the withdrawal, but did not leave the frontline on Bataan. During the Philippine Scouts’ last stand in May 1942, Major Jones fell ill with malaria. Major Jim Blanning took Jones into the hills around Mariveles on the southern tip of the Bataan peninsula. They were able to evade Japanese capture for some time, allowing them to also avoid the infamous Bataan Death March. They were eventually captured in June 1942 and placed in the Cabanatuan Prison Camp.

Major Jones survived as a prisoner of war until the Japanese began to transfer American prisoners out of the islands in the Fall of 1944, prior to the pending American invasion of the Philippines. He was on the transport ship Arisan Maru on its way to the Japanese mainland when it was struck by a torpedo from the USS Shark on October 24, 1944. He was killed during the sinking of the ship, but the nine survivors recorded that it was Major Jones who kept their spirits up and kept panic from breaking out. He was awarded the Silver Star for his gallantry. He is memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila, Philippines. For more information, see his West Point Memorial Biography at: https://www.westpointaog.org/memorial-article?id=c64dd248-cfbd-4043-89f9-2a966518195a

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