Army Spc. Kevin M. Jones

Died September 22, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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21, of Washington, N.C.; assigned to the 181st Transportation Battalion, 7th Corps Support Group, 3rd Corps Support Command, Mannheim, Germany; killed Sept. 22 when an improvised explosive device detonated by his vehicle near Taqaddum, Iraq.

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Washington native killed in Iraq praised as sacrificial

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, N.C. — A budding bagpipe player. One of the widest grins Beaufort County has ever seen.

Friends say these and many other traits vanished with the death of Army Cpl. Kevin McCray Jones, 21, who was remembered Saturday during a standing-room-only funeral service.

Jones suffered fatal injuries Sept. 22 when a roadside bomb exploded beside his vehicle west of Baghdad, becoming the 37th serviceman from North Carolina to be killed in the Iraq war. He was serving his second tour.

Those who knew Jones remembered his sacrificial approach to life — from fighting fires as a teenage volunteer firefighter to caring for stray cats and the children of Iraq.

Jones suffered injuries and deafness after an April blast, yet went to work treating fellow soldiers injured in that explosion. He even cracked jokes with another wounded soldier while being evacuated after the explosion that ultimately took his life.

Jones willingly served a second tour in Iraq because he wanted to be with his men, the Rev. Phil Hayes said at the funeral service.

A spillover crowd at the church watched the service on a large-screen television in an adjacent building at Second Baptist Church as Jones was honored with civilian and military tributes. Nearly 400 people filed past his casket Friday night.

Hayes and others spoke of Jones’ love of music, his desire to conquer the bagpipe, his military family and his friendly rivalry with his Navy officer father who wanted his son to become a sailor.

“He was a happy person. I don’t think I ever saw him when he wasn’t smiling,” Hayes said.

Maj. Gen. Virgil Packett, 18th Airborne deputy commander, described Jones’ bond to his men as the essence of camaraderie, the brotherhood of soldiers.

“This is a combat-decorated soldier,” Packett said. “He was respected; he accepted a challenge ... he never turned away from a challenge.”

Jones, Packett said, was also prone to pick up his guitar and sing, entertaining some and putting others to sleep.

But when word came of the bomb blast, Packett said, his fellow troops stood in line to give blood.

During the service, Hayes quoted a letter that Jones had mailed to the Washington Daily News last year.

“All I am asking is that you don’t be afraid of supporting us,” Jones wrote. “We were not forced to serve in the Armed Forces, we volunteered. We stand ready to protect you, and watch over you, while we spend many months far from home, training for the worst, that you may rest comfortably in your home, and watch your children grow up to follow their dreams.”

Hayes remembered hugging Jones while the soldier was on leave from his first tour in Iraq, drawing a surprised response from the young man.

“That’s OK,” Hayes told him. “Men hug, too.”

Jones learned about risking his life for others at age 16, when he joined the Old Ford Volunteer Fire Department just north of the town of Washington. A couple of years later, he became an emergency medical technician.

“It’s like a piece of the foundation is gone,” said Bryan Lilley, 24, who had served with Jones at the fire department from day one and who led him into his first structure fire. “You could always depend on him. Always. If you told him to be somewhere at 7 in the morning, he was there at 6:30 cooking you breakfast.”

Carrying the casket were soldiers from Ft. Bragg’s 18th Airborne Corps. Bagpiper Randy Tyson, playing “Amazing Grace,” preceded the bearing of the flag-draped casket as it left the sanctuary.

Born one day after the Fourth of July, 1984, Jones was laid to rest in Washington’s Oakdale Cemetery with full military honors.