Charles Larimore Jones

Charles Larimore Jones (14 May 1932 – 23 November 2006),^[1] also known as Charlie Jones,^[1] was an architect of the U.S. Air Force's forward air control doctrine, as well as one of its early practitioners during the Laotian Civil War. He was trained in forward air control techniques as a Combat Controller in 1954. In 1962, he was one of the Operation Jungle Jim volunteers who reestablished the Air Commandos. He was the first Combat Controller committed solely to support the U.S. Army Special Forces. Based on his experience, in 1963 he was assigned to Hurlburt Field to write the field manual on forward air control while expanding the Combat Controller curriculum.

Jones deployed frequently in the next few years. On one of these deployments, he was one of the first pair of Combat Controllers clandestinely infiltrated into the Laotian Civil War, under the call sign Butterfly. He and James J. Stanford supplied the first rudiments of forward air control to Operation Steel Tiger and Operation Barrel Roll. When that assignment was superseded by Raven Forward Air Controllers, Jones returned stateside and transferred into the U.S. Army as a warrant officer to finish his military career with U.S. Special Forces in 1969. After retiring from the military, he earned a Ph.D. and a J.D., and became a college professor and attorney.