Hometown Hero: Joey Jones

By Caroline Downey

Johnny “Joey” Jones’ parents were blue-collar and God-fearing. A mason and a maid, they only expected him to graduate high school and stay out of trouble. Now a Marine veteran, Jones splits time between his northwest Georgia hometown and New York City. 

“We weren’t really gung ho about anything except staying alive and working really hard,” he says of his upbringing. 

But Jones wanted more than an Appalachian career in textiles. A year into that industry, Jones was restless. He craved a challenge. Years earlier, he had found a mentor in his high school football coach, who planted the seed of a new path. 

“He had fought in Desert Storm and he was very proud of that,” Jones recalls. “He was a hometown hero.”

Jones’ two childhood best friends entered the military, and that got him thinking. He started scoping out the different branches.

“The Army was ‘be all you can be’ and the Navy was ‘travel the world,’ but the Marine Corp was ‘you probably don’t have what it takes,’” Jones says. 

Jones was looking to be held to a higher standard in life. In 2005, he enlisted in the Marines. 

“I tell people I joined the Marine corp for selfish reasons,” he says. “I wanted to gain those tenets they preached about: honor, courage, commitment, ability, discipline, judgment.”

The physical demands didn’t scare him. An offensive lineman in high school, he was used to getting his butt kicked. It was leaving his hometown that was uncharted territory. 

“It was learning to do the skills that I didn’t know I could do, like the obstacle course, or drill, or wearing a uniform,” he says. “Having this group of people expect something from me and showing them I could do it.”

Jones is now a personality for Fox Nation and a contributor for Fox News, where he often talks about his military experience. 

“If you serve in war, you never get to fully retire,” he says. “It’s always going to be a part of you. And that can be a great thing as much as a bad thing. We hear a lot about 22-a-day and the war coming home with you. That’s 100 percent true. But it also is a contributing factor to your decision-making process and your resilience.”

Jones’ new book, Unbroken Bonds of Battle, tells the story of the people who inspired him to join the military and love his country.

His love for the armed forces has never wavered, even after a life-changing injury during deployment in Afghanistan cost him his legs. On August 6, 2010, just after his 23rd birthday, Jones stepped on a bomb and his life changed forever. 

“When I woke up in the hospital two days later, I got the news that Daniel Greer, the guy standing beside me, was killed in action by the bomb that I stepped on,” he says. 

Though stricken with grief, Jones felt a responsibility to “make life count, to be the best dad, and enjoy it,” he says. “I’ve never found anything that gave me as much joy as being a dad.” 

Now he teaches rugged American values to his 14-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl. Jones recently bought a 40-acre farm in Georgia, where he and his kids tend together to Tennessee fainting goats and miniature jack asses. They also partake in fishing, board games, sport shooting, and woodshopping. 

“To have days that wear you out, to bleed for something you love,” he adds. “I need a place where we have to work a little bit, even if it's just for other animals. I think it’s primal and necessary for a balanced soul. I think God put us here with a pretty easy ecosystem and we’ve worked very hard to screw it up.”

While he’d much rather have cows for neighbors every day of the week, Jones frequently commutes to New York City to go on air. He talks to millions of people about the lessons he’s learned. 

“I want to make sure that the people I live among have a voice on the national stage,” he says.“When I’m on television, I’m not trying to talk to the pundit or the host to my left and right. I’m talking to my uncle Jeff. I’m talking to my mama. I’m talking to my buddy Danny. And I’m trying to tell them not what to think but to give them some insight into things that affect their lives that people speak $10 words about.”

Caroline Downey is editor in chief of The Conservateur and education reporter at National Review. She can be found on Twitter @carolinedowney_.