Pacific Stars and Stripes information
for 20 ENG BDE
For date 680620
20 ENG BDE was a US Army unit
Primary service involved, US Army
Bien Hoa Province, III Corps, South Vietnam
Location, Bien Hoa
Description: 28Jun68-Legendary Flier Helps Young Pilots Grow Old
BIEN HOA, Vietnam (AP) - Ruddy faced Colver Jones is not just a pilot he's a cockpit philosopher - twice as old as many of his flying mates and something of a legend. Peering over an undisciplined auburn mustache, the 48-year-old captain fixes young helicopter pilots with a baleful stare and warns: "There is no such thing as an old, bold pilot." In Vietnam, however, there are plenty of young bold pilots and Jones is dedicated to seeing that they age gracefully. Having flown with a gunship company in Vietnam four years ago, Jones is ending his second tour as a pilot with the 20th Eng. Brigade. The engineer pilots fly cargo and liaison missions, haul dignitaries and command officers and maintain courier flights throughout the Mekong Delta. It sounds safe enough but nothing is really safe in Vietnam. Jones recalls a routine ferry mission to Saigon's airport one morning when the chopper taking off just ahead got caught in a burst of fire from a sudden skirmish on the ground - one crewman was killed with a bullet in his head. "I always tell the new pilots to forget those wild combat stories and start fresh. There are no more instructors out here. You start learning from right now. "It's a funny thing. I never met a kid who wouldn't listen." They listen, perhaps, because Colver Jones is known as "The Fox." In 25 years of flying he has had only one major accident, and he walked away from that one. His accident came a decade ago survey planes for the engineers in Alaska. A submerged bit of thawing tundra ripped the floats from his light plane during a landing. In Vietnam, he has never had a bullet hole. Jones qualified as a glider pilot with the old Army Air Corps in World War II but never left the states. He did a hitch as an aviation machinist in the Navy, rejoined the Army Reserves and came back to fly in Korea for the Army. His battered flight log numbers 4,900 hours, and Jones points out most of these came in short hops - not the lengthy flights of Air Force fliers. After 19 years in the Army and nearing the end of his time in Vietnam, Jones is looking forward to picking up his wife and three children in Texas City, Tex. for his next job., flying Army survey teams in Latin America. "After that," he said, "I may hang up my shoes but I'll still keep flying. I may get a ground job tied up with aviation safety."
Comments: CPT Jones, Colver; pilot; ;
The source for this information was 6806PSS.AVN supplied by Les Hines 3/97
Additional information is available on CD-ROM.
Please send additions or corrections to: Gary Roush Email address: webmaster@vhpa.org
Return to panel index
Return to Helicopter Pilot KIA index
Return to VHPA Home Page
Copyright © 1998 - 2023 Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association
Date posted on this site:
05/13/2023