Meet Johnny “Joey” Jones, a.k.a. “Triple J,” a Dalton, Georgia, native and, as he would say, from a family of moonshiners and race car drivers. Most folks know him as a Fox News personality or from the other media platforms on which he appears, but I recognize him first and foremost as a Marine who turned tragedy into triumph.
In 2005, Joey was an exceptional football player when he graduated from Southeast Whitfield High School. He worked in a local carpet mill for a few months while attending Dalton State College but was determined to enlist in the Marine Corps — and he did.
After boot camp at Paris Island in 2006, he was assigned to the USS Rushmore. The following two years, he became a combat machine gunner in Al Anbar during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He then applied for and was approved to be trained as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD/Bomb) tech. In 2010, during Operation Enduring Freedom, he deployed to the Helmand Province in Afghanistan.
In the first months of his deployment, then-SSgt Jones disarmed 85 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and rendered neutral thousands of pounds of bulk explosives. But number 86 was a problem.
In his words: “On my third deployment, five months of disarming bombs in the southern Helmand Province of Afghanistan came to an end when I stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED). In one step, my life and the lives of those closest to me were changed forever. When I woke up in Germany a few days later, both of my legs had been amputated above the knee, my right arm was in pieces without any feeling, and my left wrist was crushed.”
His close friend, Cpl Daniel Greer, was killed in the explosion.
Over the ensuing months, Joey underwent dozens of surgeries and intensive rehab at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
He says during recovery: “The postcards, letters, get-well-soons, and thank-you-for-your-service messages came piling in. [It was] the toughest time in my life — as I struggled to achieve the simplest goals of feeding myself, pushing my own wheelchair, or just lowering my pain meds to regain my sense of humor.”
To his family and friends, he says: “You all were there with me. Taped to the walls and on the screen of my first iPad were images of people back home: preachers and teachers, cops and firemen, business owners and neighbors, family and friends, strangers and concerned citizens, all there to support me and keep me charging on.”
Early in his recovery, Joey set about paying it forward: “I was fortunate enough to become a mentor to similarly injured wounded warriors. As they struggled through the unknowns of life after injury, my duty was to show them firsthand that amputation does not, and cannot, equate to limitation.”
He learned to use his prosthetics at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. At the same time, he started college classes at Georgetown University with the support and mentorship of Sentinels of Freedom.
In 2012, he lost his best friend to a PTSD-related suicide. That same year, he said he “became the first severely wounded enlisted Marine to advise Congress by working as a fellow for the House Veterans Affairs Committee.” He graduated from GU in 2014 and continued to dedicate himself to Veteran issues.
Of overcoming obstacles, he said: “There are very few obstacles that hard work and determination cannot overcome. Since losing my legs, I have learned to snowboard, acted in the film ‘Lincoln,’ befriended an Academy Award-winning actor as well as the entire NASCAR community, married my high school sweetheart, and learned to walk alongside my little boy. I am a daddy, a husband, a student, a Marine, and, most importantly, a forward-looking, contributing member of the greatest society this world has ever known.”
He exudes the enthusiasm of a grateful American Patriot, and you will quickly recognize him in any public place — the guy with the biggest smile and words of encouragement for all around him.
Joey joined Fox News in 2019.
On his tenth “Alive Day” in August 2020, he published an essay devoted to his friend, Cpl Greer:
“Ten years ago this week I was lying on a foreign battlefield in the rural Helmand Province of Afghanistan. Just moments before I had rendered safe or disarmed an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) or ‘homemade bomb’ and was talking to the Marine providing security for me, Cpl Daniel Greer. In the blink of an eye, my life, Daniel’s life and the lives of those we love changed forever. … That day, August 6th, 2010, isn’t the day I lost my legs, it’s the day I lived. It’s my ‘Alive Day.’ Now looking back a full decade since that day I have to acknowledge some hard truths. First, Cpl Greer didn’t survive that bomb. I might’ve done something different and he’d still be here but war is ruthless, indiscriminate and final. There are no second chances, looking backs or better next times. It’s just life and death and what’s left. … Cpl Greer died that day but now I owe it to him to live a full and good life. To pay his sacrifice forward and see his legacy fulfilled. His widow is now my dear friend. His son is a sprouting young man who is the same age as mine. His hometown, a community in East Tennessee, now embraces me as one of their own.”
He continued: “Not many of us live through war but all of us survive life. We live through bankruptcy, divorce, cancer and losing loved ones. But we’re all still here, not just making the best of our circumstances, but making our circumstances the best life we can live. We get up every morning and decide the pain and frustration is worth it. That the smiles on the faces of our spouses and children make life a fight worth fighting and victories worth celebrating. As one of a select few who is permanently attached to an ‘Alive Day’ let me be clear — we aren’t just the resentment of war, we are the resilience of war.”
Joey concluded: “We are grateful to be alive and damn lucky to be Americans. To each and every American struggling today to make it until tomorrow, let today be your ‘Alive Day’ — the day you chose to live. The day you get to look at your pain and the uncertain path ahead in the eye and say, ‘I win.’”
In 2021, as a recipient of the Genesis Legacy Medal from the National Purple Heart Honor Mission, he said in typical humility: “I know in receiving this award that I’m not just being recognized for any one thing I have done in my own life, but for the successes of a collective group of friends, family, and proud Americans who saw the worthy cause of investing time and resources into our nation’s severely wounded. Most importantly, this award recognizes that being severely wounded isn’t a life sentence, and that’s something I’m only one of many veterans who’ve excelled in. This is truly an honor for me, but more importantly, a recognition of the sacrifices made by my brothers on the battlefield.”
His first book and a bestseller, Unbroken Bonds of Battle, was released in June 2023. He tells the stories of the warriors who have supported and inspired him on the battlefield and off, and it provides insight into the relationships and events that forged his outlook on life. His second book, Behind the Badge, was released last month and is dedicated to First Responders.
Joey will be the recipient of the John R. “Tex” McCrary Award for Excellence in Journalism at the 2025 Medal of Honor Celebration — the annual gathering of all living recipients hosted by the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee — the Birthplace of the Medal of Honor. (For more information on the 2025 Medal of Honor Celebration, as well as corporate, foundation, and individual sponsorship opportunities for this high-profile event, contact our friend Vince Butler at 423-877-2525 ext. 111, or email him at [email protected].)
And a final word from “Triple J” on courage: “Anybody can be brave for a moment … you can get pumped up on adrenaline. … But courage is knowing the consequences, not wanting those consequences, but choosing to do it anyway because it needs to be done.”
Joey and Meg are raising their kids not far from where he was raised.
SSgt Johnny “Joey” Jones: Your example of valor — a humble American Patriot defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty and in disregard for the peril to your own life — is eternal.
“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Live your life worthy of his sacrifice.
(Read more Profiles of Valor here.)
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
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