Lawrence L. Jones
Vietnam War
Navy 1967-1971
Lawrence Lee Jones was born in Winner, South Dakota on July 16, 1944. He spent most of his childhood in Anthon, Iowa where he graduated from Anthon-Oto High School in 1962. He began his college education at Creighton University and completed his Bachelor of Arts Degree at the University of Iowa in 1966. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was sent to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois for basic training. He graduated as honor man of his class and was sent to Bainbridge, Maryland to complete his training at radio school. Upon completion of his training, he was stationed in Rabat, Morocco for eighteen months. He returned to Iowa City to marry Catherine Clarissa Watt on December 7, 1968. He returned briefly to Morocco and was then sent to the aircraft carrier USS Hornet from 1969-70 which was based in Long Beach, California. He was aboard the Hornet in the Pacific Theater when it picked up the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 space capsules. He spent much of his cruise off the shores of Vietnam. When the Hornet was decommissioned in Bremerton, Washington, he was sent to the USS Bon Homme Richard, another aircraft carrier also in the Pacific Theater. At the end of his tour of duty in January 1971, he returned to Iowa City and resumed his job at Procter and Gamble remaining in the Reserves until 1973. His son Christopher Ruppert was born in 1978 and his daughter Katherine Anna in 1981.
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