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Home Town Battlecreek
Date of Passing Dec 18, 2016
Location of Interment Western Carolina State Veterans Cemetery - Black Mountain, North Carolina
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Obituary
Wilmot Adair “Bill” Jones, age 81, passed away December 18, 2016 in the loving care of The Elizabeth House. Bill was born on 11/27/1935 in Battlecreek Michigan.
He was a Navy veteran who served during the 1950’s and 1960’s; most notably on the USS Triton submarine completing the 1st underwater circumnavigation of the world.
He is survived by his wife, Beverly Jones; daughter Mary Taulbee and husband Mark; son Charles “Bud” Jones and wife Kierra; daughter Patty Horton and husband Gene; daughter Sharon Allen and husband Mckinley; sister Helen Figley; grandchildren – Christopher Taulbee, Richard Taulbee, Justin Taulbee, Kristen Ainslee, Robert Allen, Kaitlin Allen, Molly Horton, Jack Horton and 4 great-grandchildren along with his many other family and friends.
A private memorial will be held with the final burial at the North Carolina Veterans Cemetery in Black Mountain. Western North Carolina Mortuary Service will assist the family.
Balao was recommissioned on 4 March 1952 at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base, New London, Connecticut, Lieutenant Commander S. V. Hadley in command, and assigned to the Atlantic Fleet's Submarine Squadron 4 (SubRon 4). After shakedown training, the submarine was reassigned to SubRon 12 at the U.S. Naval Base in Key West, Fla. There, she served primarily as a training ship for antisubmarine and Special Development Forces in the Key West and Guantanamo Bay operating areas.
After making several goodwill visits to ports in the southern United States, Balao joined the ships of Destroyer Squadron 24 (DesRon 24) in a combined antisubmarine warfare (ASW) training and goodwill cruise to South America that began on 6 January 1957. After joint exercises with the navies of several South American countries, the ship made liberty calls to principal ports such as Caracas, Venezuela; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Montevideo, Uruguay; Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires, Argentina. The submarine returned to Key West on 22 March.
Balao deployed to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base four times in the next year, spending one month each time training surface ships in “refresher training.” The submarine departed Key West on 19 July 1958 for an overhaul at the Charleston Naval Shipyard. Upon its completion on 13 November, Balao conducted refresher training at New London, Conn. and Newport, Rhode Island. After Balao's return to Key West on 30 November, she and Archer-Fish spent 12 days of December in hunter-killer training.