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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.
Best Moment Triton put to sea on her shakedown cruise on 15 February 1960, bound for the South Atlantic. She arrived in the middle Atlantic off St. Peter and St. Paul Rocks on 24 February to commence a history-making voyage. Having remained submerged since her departure from the east coast, Triton continued on south towards Cape Horn, rounded the tip of South America, and headed west across the Pacific. After transiting the Philippine and Indonesian archipelagos and crossing the Indian Ocean, she rounded the Cape of Good Hope and arrived off the St. Peter and Paul Rocks on 10 April—60 days and 21 hours after departing the mid-ocean landmark. Only once did her sail break the surface of the sea, when she transferred a sick sailor to Macon (CA-132) off Montevideo, Uruguay, on 6 March. She arrived back at Groton, Connecticut, on 10 May, having completed the first submerged circumnavigation of the earth.
Triton's globe-girdling cruise proved invaluable to the United States. Politically, it enhanced the nation's prestige. From an operational viewpoint, the cruise demonstrated the great submerged endurance and sustained high-speed transit capabilities of the first generation of nuclear-powered submarines. Moreover, during the voyage, the submarine collected reams of oceanographic data. At the cruise's conclusion, Triton received the Presidential Unit Citation and Captain Beach received the Legion of Merit from President Dwight D. Eisenhower.[72]
