Seawolf

@CletusDoodle

Jesus Christ is King! All praise and worship to the risen Glorified Lord, Jesus Christ! Lord of lords, King of kings, Jesus Christ Lives for Eternity.

Joined July 2025

1.5K Following

7 Followers

485 Posts

CletusDoodle retweeted

Steve Clemans

@Steve09812

1 day ago

For days, a Marine bomb-disposal team had moved through a Taliban stronghold, uncovering one hidden explosive after another. Then one device they had not detected exploded beneath an EOD technician, leaving him catastrophically wounded while a Marine beside him suffered injuries that would prove fatal. Johnny “Joey” Jones grew up in Dalton, Georgia, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in April 2005. He initially worked in communications and later served overseas before choosing to retrain for one of the Corps’ most dangerous specialties: Explosive Ordnance Disposal. Jones deployed to Iraq in 2007, where his experience around EOD personnel helped influence his decision to become a bomb technician himself. After completing the demanding EOD training pipeline, he joined 1st EOD Company, 1st Marine Logistics Group, and prepared for another combat deployment. In March 2010, he deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. His team was attached to 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, and worked ahead of other Marines identifying, rendering safe, and destroying improvised explosive devices placed throughout routes, compounds, and populated areas. The work was relentless. During that deployment, Jones and his EOD team destroyed roughly 80 or more IEDs, along with thousands of pounds of other explosive material. CBS journalists embedded with the Marines documented how technicians sometimes had to work slowly on foot because terrain and conditions prevented the use of heavier protective equipment or remote systems. By early August, the Marines were operating in Safar Bazaar, an area heavily seeded with explosives. Jones, Staff Sgt. Eric Chir, and Marine Reserve combat engineer Cpl. Kristopher Daniel Greer spent days clearing devices as Marines pushed through the town. More than 40 bombs had already been found during the operation. On August 6, 2010, Jones had just finished dealing with explosive material near a building and stepped away from a short wall. His right foot came down on a concealed IED. The detonation threw him through the air and immediately took both of his legs above the knees. His right forearm and both wrists also sustained devastating injuries. Greer suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in the same explosion, while Chir was wounded by shrapnel. Marines rushed the casualties to a nearby trauma station, and medical evacuation helicopters arrived within approximately half an hour. Greer later died from his wounds. Jones survived and began an exceptionally difficult recovery at Walter Reed. Treatment required him to adapt to life as a bilateral above-the-knee amputee while doctors also worked to preserve function in his badly damaged upper extremities. He eventually learned to walk with prosthetic legs and spent roughly two years moving through treatment, rehabilitation, and the process that led to his medical retirement from the Marine Corps in 2012. Even during recovery, he began helping other wounded service members. At Walter Reed, Jones helped establish a peer-mentoring effort in which patients farther along in rehabilitation could support newly injured troops confronting the earliest stages of recovery. His next chapter took him into veterans policy. Jones worked on Capitol Hill with the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, contributing his experience as a wounded Marine to discussions involving military and veterans services. He later attended Georgetown University, completing a degree in liberal studies with a concentration in social and public policy in 2014. He subsequently became deeply involved in veterans advocacy, nonprofit work, public speaking, and media. Among his roles were leadership and advisory positions with organizations serving veterans and military families, while his public appearances increasingly focused on explaining the experiences of service members, combat wounded veterans, and Gold Star families. Jones also continued to mark August 6 as his “Alive Day.” Rather than describe it simply as the day he lost his legs, he has spoken of it as the day he survived while also remembering Greer, whose life ended because of the same explosion. That distinction has remained central to how he discusses both recovery and the cost borne by those who never came home. Then, nearly 14 years after his medical retirement, his military story took an extraordinary turn. On May 20, 2026, Jones stood inside the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon and took the oath of enlistment again, returning to uniform as a Staff Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. His return was not a symbolic honorary gesture. The 2026 Defense Department account stated that he was rejoining the Corps after years outside the service, bringing his experience back into an organization whose EOD community had shaped, and nearly ended, his original military career. Johnny “Joey” Jones survived wounds that permanently changed his body, built a second career serving fellow veterans, and then did something few could have imagined on the day he left Afghanistan: he put the Marine uniform back on and returned to service. 📷