About the book

B-29 “DOUBLE TROUBLE” IS “MISTER BEE” (2020) is the biography of Lieutenant Colonel Elmer C. Jones U.S. Air Force Reserve (Retired) (1924 to 2014), the father of the book’s author, Colonel Charles A. Jones U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Retired).

The book will appeal to anyone interested in World War II, specifically the aerial bombing campaign over Japan in 1945.

The focus of the book is the author’s father’s wartime military service during World War II in the United States Army Air Forces: 28 combat missions over Japan in 1945 a B-29 “Superfortress” bomber as the crew’s radar operator. Thirteen of the missions were bombing missions; fifteen of the missions were photographic reconnaissance missions. The reconnaissance mission flown from June 25 to June 26, 1945 was a “single ship” mission (meaning the crew flew the mission alone) from the crew’s base on Guam to Northern Japan and back to Guam, 4,650 miles in 23:00 hours. This mission was the longest nonstop aviation combat mission of World War II.

The crew flew mission number 29, its last mission, on VJ (Victory over Japan) Day in the Pacific, September 2, 1945 (September 1, 1945 in the United States). The flight was part of the air armada that flew over battleship USS Missouri to commemorate the signing of the surrender documents ending World War II.

Elmer C. Jones ended the war with 489:50 combat flight hours.

He was recalled to service during the Korean War, but he did not fly, combat or any other missions. He worked as a budget and fiscal officer at the U.S. Air Force Aeronautical Chart and Information Service.

After World War II, he worked for his uncle at a GMC truck dealership and assumed ownership of the dealership after his uncle died in 1965. He was president of the dealership until it closed in the 1980s. He rented the dealership property until he sold it in 2008 and formally retired.

He died in 2014.

His wife is Aileen Mateer Jones of Greensboro, and his only child Charles is the author of this book.