Thomas Arthur Jones

Shipmate... I wish for you fair winds and following seas, deep green water under your bow, your main rifles trained in the posture of peace, and a gentle breeze at your stern.

On behalf of the shipmates of the USS Vesuvius AE15 Group of the AE/AOE Sailors Assn., we offer our sympathy and our sincere condolences to the family and friends of our fellow shipmate, Thomas Jones.

We wish him fair winds and following seas on his last and final voyage.

Bob Smith

I swam with TJ on the Ritzville Swim Club. I then went on to swim in college and then coach High School swimming for 32 years. During that time I never saw or coached a swimmer who had the competitive drive and determination TJ showed. He entered every race knowing he would win. Most times he did, sometimes he didn't. The few times he lost, he just came back and practiced harder.

Tom moved to Spokane before our class of 1961 graduated. We invited him back for our 50th reunion...

February 22,2014
Dear Tom, I was thinking about you two months ago, and the happy times you gave me and others on the Ritzville Swimming Team. All of us who knew you will miss you very much. I'll always remember the time you pushed me off the high tower at the Kelowna Regatta. We weren't divers (for sure), but you certainly were a great swimmer and competitor and did much to help make the swim club a power to be reckoned with.
As the old saying goes, "Where are the snows of...

We only knew Tom for a short while, getting to know him and his sister at the Lady Zag games. He loved his Zags and his family. We miss our Zag friend.

Tom was a good friend, and my favorite bother-in-law. "Mr. Jones" came to visit me regularly at my cube at the main Spokane office after he had retired;I was still working. If he hadn't been so entertaining, I would have smacked him. I would have to listen to his stories of how GRAND it was to be retired. What a guy. Laurel and I will miss Tom so very much.

Walt

Laurel may have said it best about how Tom loved to "tease" with folks. He could dish it out and he could take it also. He and his great friend Martin were the center of great laughter as we and others brought the WWP Kettle Plant to life. Tom I will miss you old friend.

I was saddened to hear of Tom's passing. Tom was my cousin and when we were kids we raised hell riding around on bikes in the sagebrush south of Kennewick, shooting our BB guns at whatever moved. Later, when he was in high school, I watched him practicing for swimming in Ritzville, amazing to see him churning back and forth for hours with ease and determination. We drifted apart in our own lives, and we last saw each other at my mom's 90th birthday party in Kennewick. I will miss you Tom,...

I was sorry to hear of TJ's passing. We were team mates on the Ritzville Swim Team. He was one of the hardest working and most competitive swimmers I have known.
My condolences to his family.