By Hak Haskins, Jasper Herald Managing Editor
DUBOIS — A 19-year-old soldier who graduated from Northeast Dubois High School last year has been wounded in action in Iraq.
Spc. Kyle Jones remains on light duty today following the June 27 attack on the convoy he was leading about 30 miles from Camp Speicher, near Tikrit, where he is stationed.
Jones, trained as an infantryman, was driving the lead vehicle when a roadside bomb exploded near the driver’s side. The impact of the explosion hit him in the chest, busted two of his ribs and caused flash burns to his left retina; he suffered a mild concussion.
His body armor — a 9-pound flak vest stuffed with steel plates — saved his life, said his mother, Kim Jones, of Dubois.
Jones spent five days in a U.S. military hospital and is recovering from his wounds at Camp Anaconda, near Balaad, a major U.S. installation in central Iraq.
The family learned of the wounds through a telephone call from the Red Cross military liaison office hours after the incident. Eight hours later, Kim and Claude Jones had a chance to speak with their son.
Jones was sedated and in a hospital bed in Baghdad during the call.
“The first thing he said was, ‘Mom, I’m alive,’” Kim Jones said.
Jones joined the National Guard as a junior at Northeast Dubois on a program called split option. He took basic training before his senior year, then completed advanced training last summer.
While in high school he played baseball and basketball and briefly ran cross country for the Jeeps.
He was the starting second baseman on the squad that made it to the Class 1A semistate in 2007, and one of three seniors on that team who enlisted in the military following graduation
Jones was never injured during his athletic career, his mother said.
His recovery now assured — and a Purple Heart forthcoming — Jones is spending his days doing odd jobs around Camp Anaconda, his mother said. He is expected to return to full duty within a week.
Jones was typically a gunner in the rear vehicle of the convoys the Jasper-based 1st Battalion, 151st Regiment operates in Iraq, but he had taken the driver’s seat the day he was injured, Kim Jones said.
His was the first reported serious casualty for the 1/151 since that National Guard unit shipped out in late winter for its second yearlong combat tour.
Jones is assigned to Delta Company, based in Washington.
