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Georgia WWII hero's grave inspires songwriter ballad decades after soldier killed in combat
FIRST ON FOX: A World War II hero from backwoods Georgia inspires Americans today even from the grave.
The story of U.S. Army PFC Ervin O. Jones is worthy of a song.
Craig Gleason, a Georgia songwriter, penned “The Ballad of Ervin O. Jones” in 2014, after he and his daughter came across the soldier’s headstone in a churchyard cemetery in the city of Alpharetta.
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“It’s a powerful story, man. It’s powerful,” Gleason said Sunday in a telephone interview with Fox News Digital.
Gleason, in turn, teaches the art of songwriting to struggling veterans who attend Warrior Week each month at Camp Southern Ground in Fayetteville, Georgia.
U.S. Army PFC Ervin O. Jones of Alpharetta, Georgia, was just 20 years old when he was killed in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Seven decades later, his Georgia gravestone inspired musician Craig Gleason to write “The Ballad of Ervin O. Jones.” (Jones Family/Craig Gleason)
Grammy Award-winning musician Zac Brown founded the camp in 2011. Gleason is a former coordinator for the Nashville Songwriters Association.
Gleason looked at a church cemetery near his home in Alpharetta as an opportunity to learn about, and teach his daughter, then aged 12, about local history.
“When you homeschool your children, you use real-life experiences, every place you go and everyone you meet, as a learning experience,” said Gleason.
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It’s the same skill used by songwriters to take everyday experiences and interpret them for others through the human gift of music.
“I told Audrey, you can learn a lot from these tombstones.”
The Gleasons found out about a hometown hero buried in their midst. Along the way, they earned a lesson about the grief that grips a family decades after wartime loss.
U.S. Army PFC Ervin O. Jones of Alpharetta, Georgia, was just 20 years old when he was killed during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. His gravestone inspired musician Craig Gleason to write “The Ballad of Ervin O. Jones.” (Jones Family/Craig Gleason)
PFC Jones was just 20 years old when he was killed on the island of Ieshima during the Battle of Okinawa on April 17, 1945, as Americans forces closed in on the home islands of Imperial Japan.
Gleason was haunted by the grave and was moved to write about the soldier. But he wanted to know the real story about the young man resting under the headstone near his home.
He soon learned that PFC Jones’ younger brother, Curtis, was still alive and living nearby, in Canton, Georgia.
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“Curtis was living in a little trailer out in the woods and I knocked on his door and introduced myself,” said Gleason. “I said, ‘I’m writing a song about your brother Ervin’ and asked if we could talk.”
He added, “Curtis was like old-school backwoods Georgia. Real salt of the Earth. He invited me in and for the next three or four hours in his living room he pulled out artifacts, pictures and an old guitar that Ervin owned.”
Turns out that Gleason and the forever-young dirt-poor Georgia farmboy shared the gift of music.
Curtis Jones, now deceased, lived his adult life with the pain of his older brother’s death during World War II. PFC Ervin O. Jones was killed on the Japanese island of Ieshima on April 17, 1945. (Jones Family/Craig Gleason)
“We laughed and cried, and by the end I felt like I had become part of that family within just a few hours.”
Among other things, Gleason learned that the former stranger, PFC Jones, died a hero.
“His courage and aggressiveness in this action was truly an inspiration to the officers and men in his company,” his commanding officer, Capt. William B. Cooper, wrote in July 1945, in a letter addressed to the soldier’s mother, Jennie.
(Here’s the song below, embedded with permission from Craig Gleason, creator and copyright owner.)
One of Gleason’s most painful discoveries was that Jones’ parents never fully coped with the overwhelming grief they suffered upon learning of their son’s death.
“Granny Jennie and Papa Harmon never mentioned Ervin, and we visited them every Sunday until they passed,” PFC’s nephew and his wife, John and Judy Jones, said via text message on Sunday.
“American patriots and war heroes, much like songs, grow from the most humble circumstances.”
“The pain of the loss of their firstborn son Ervin never went away and they grieved until they died.”
Gleason learned one other lesson — a powerful lesson he said he tries to pass on to aspiring musicians, veterans, everyday Americans and the people for whom he performs “The Ballad of Ervin O. Jones.”
He learned that American patriots and war heroes, much like songs, grow from the most humble circumstances.
Army PFC Ervin O. Jones was killed on April 17, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa. His Georgia grave inspired musician Craig Gleason to write “The Ballad of Ervin O. Jones” seven decades later. (Jones Family/Craig Gleason and Will Lester/MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images)
He writes, and sings, in the last lines of the ballad: “From the lowlands to the highlands / Across every stick and stone / Came heroes who gave and lost their lives / Heroes like Ervin O. Jones.”
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Family member of American killed by Cuban forces in boat shootout says he was on ‘diabolical’ mission
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The brother of an American citizen killed in a brazen boat clash with Cuban forces says his sibling was consumed by an “obsessive and diabolical” push to free the island and that “no one knew” what he was planning.
American citizen Michel Ortega Casanova, who worked as a truck driver, was one of 10 passengers on a Florida-registered boat that allegedly opened fire on Cuban soldiers in an attempt to infiltrate the island.
A Monroe County Sheriff’s Office incident report obtained by Fox News noted the boat’s owner reported it stolen Wednesday after hearing about the Cuba shootout on the news.
The owner, who did not speak English, told deputies his 24-foot vessel went missing, and he suspected an employee named Hector — who had two young daughters in Cuba — may have taken it.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed an incident involving Cuban forces and a speedboat Wednesday before returning to Washington, D.C., after meetings with Caribbean Community leaders at Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool/Reuters)
Ortega Casanova, who lived in the U.S. for more than two decades, was one of four killed in the attempt. He is survived by his wife, mother, brother, two sisters, daughter and unborn grandchild.
Six other passengers, all Cubans living in the U.S., were injured. It is unclear if Hector was on board.
Ortega Casanova’s brother, Misael, told The Associated Press Wednesday that his brother had an “obsessive and diabolical” pursuit for Cuba’s freedom.
“Only us Cubans who have lived over there understand [the great suffering],” Misael said.
He said “no one knew” about his brother’s plans to infiltrate the island, noting their mother is “devastated.”
“They became so obsessed that they didn’t think about the consequences nor their own lives,” Misael said.
While Ortega Casanova’s family did not recognize any of the other passengers, Misael said, “maybe [the attempt] will justify that some day Cuba will be free.”
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Cuban Coast Guard forces reported an exchange of gunfire with a U.S.-registered speedboat Wednesday. (Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images)
He refrained from labeling the group heroes, describing the idea as “ignorance.”
Cuban officials said many of the boat passengers, who were intercepted roughly a mile northeast of Cayo Falcones, off Cuba’s north coast, had a known history of criminal and violent activity.
Passengers Amijail Sánchez González and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez were wanted by Cuban authorities for their involvement in the “promotion, planning, organization, financing, support or commission of actions carried out in the national territory or in other countries, in connection with acts of terrorism,” according to the government.
Cuban politician Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla posted to X after the incident, claiming a “rigorous investigation” is being conducted to clarify the facts.
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“Cuba has had to face numerous terrorist and aggressive infiltrations originating from #EEUU since 1959, at a high cost in lives, injuries, and material damage,” Rodriguez Parrilla wrote in a post. “The defense of Cuba’s coasts, of the national territory, and of national security is an ineludible duty.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is working to determine whether the passengers were American citizens or permanent residents.
U.S. officials said at least two of the people on the bat were U.S. citizens, and another was on a U.S. K-1 visa — which is granted to fiancées of U.S. citizens for 90 days.
“We have various different elements of the U.S. government that are trying to identify elements of the story that may not be provided to us now,” Rubio told reporters in Basseterre, St. Kitts.
“Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that. It’s not something that happens every day. It’s something, frankly, that hasn’t happened with Cuba in a very long time.”
Cuban officials said the vessel’s passengers were intercepted off the country’s northern coast. (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto)
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Rubio said the U.S. will verify the facts independently, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Coast Guard are investigating.
Vice President JD Vance said he was briefed on the incident, and the White House is monitoring the situation.
“Hopefully it’s not as bad as we fear it could be,” Vance said.
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Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier said prosecutors will work with federal, state and law enforcement partners to start an investigation.
“The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” Uthmeier wrote in a social media post.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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A North Carolina woman whose disappearance in 2001 triggered a 24-year search is now facing criminal charges from the year she vanished.
Michele Hundley Smith, now 63, was located Feb. 20 at an undisclosed location within North Carolina after detectives received new information about her case, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said.
Smith was 38 when her husband reported that she left their Eden home Dec. 9, 2001, to go Christmas shopping in Martinsville, Virginia, and never returned. Her vehicle was never found.
An extensive investigation followed, and, despite years of investigative work, her whereabouts remained unknown until last week.
The 63-year-old woman posted $2,000 bond on a failure to appear charge related to a DWI from the month before she vanished for 24 years. (Robeson County Sheriff’s Office)
Authorities said Smith told investigators she left on her own accord and referenced “domestic issues.”
Sheriff Sam Page told Fox News Digital the sheriff’s office had no prior record of domestic incidents at the home. No criminal charges are expected in her disappearance. However, following her identification, investigators discovered an outstanding order for arrest dating back to 2001.
A missing persons flyer circulated at the time of Michele Hundely Smith’s disappearance in December 2001. (Bring Michele Hundely Smith Home/Facebook)
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In a statement, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said that, after consultation with the District Attorney’s Office and further investigation, authorities identified an outstanding order for arrest for Smith for failure to appear.
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The order stemmed from a DWI charge issued by the Eden Police Department Nov. 11, 2001. Smith failed to appear in court Dec. 27, 2001, for that charge, the statement said.
On Feb. 25, 2026, Smith was taken into custody by the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office at the request of Rockingham County authorities. She later posted a $2,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Rockingham County District Court March 26, 2026.
A missing mom found alive after 23 years reveals she left due to domestic issues. (Bring Michele Hundely Smith Home/Facebook)
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On Thursday, the New York Post reported it had located Smith in a trailer in a rural community near the South Carolina state line. Smith told the outlet she is trying to make amends with her daughter and the family she walked out on decades ago.
“My daughter is forgiving me. We are in contact, so leave me alone,” she told the outlet.
Smith’s neighbors said she had “been here for years and years” and mostly keeps to herself.
“We asked why she didn’t come out of the house much, and she said her husband passed. He passed last year. … She was really sad about it. She said she was depressed and stayed inside,” the neighbor said.
Michele Hundely Smith disappeared after leaving her home in North Carolina to go Christmas shopping in Virginia in December 2001. (Bring Michele Hundely Smith Home/Facebook)
In a 2018 interview on “The Vanished Podcast,” her daughter, Amanda Hundley, said her mother’s marriage was unraveling under the weight of alcohol abuse, infidelity and escalating marital arguments.
Smith had recently lost her job at a veterinary practice after being fired for drinking on the job, Hundley said.
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“My dad didn’t like the fact that my mom hid her drinking. I knew about it, and I was the only one. And I felt, you know, I was young, and I felt obligated not to say anything to betray my mom,” Hundley said on the podcast.
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According to Hundley, her father suspected the drinking but did not fully understand the extent of it until after Smith vanished.
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“He said, ‘Do you know where she kept the bottles at?’ And I showed them we had a little red building outside, and it was full of rum bottles, the empties, the ones that she had already drunk,” recalled Hundley, who was 14 at the time.
The couple’s relationship had also deteriorated. Hundley said both her parents had affairs during the marriage. She described frequent arguments that “got physical a few times.”
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Atlanta-area police blast parents over vodka martini packed in school lunch: ‘That is NOT apple juice’
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An Atlanta-area police department issued a blunt notice to parents after officers claimed a child brought a vodka-based beverage to school — tucked beside Doritos in a packed lunch.
The City of South Fulton Police Department sounded off about the incident in a now-viral Facebook post, warning parents to “CHECK. THE. LUNCHBOX.”
“Say Twin… Before you send them babies off to school… CHECK. THE. LUNCHBOX. Because why are we getting reports of juice boxes sitting next to… Cutwater margaritas??” the department wrote.
Officials also shared a photo of the alleged lunchbox, containing what appears to be a child’s lunch, Doritos and a Cutwater Lemon Drop Martini.
The police department shared a photo of a Cutwater canned cocktail in a lunchbox. (City of South Fulton Police Department via Facebook)
“That is NOT Capri Sun. That is NOT Apple Juice. That is a whole ‘Parent had a long night’ starter pack,” the department wrote. “Now little Johnny done pulled up to 3rd period talking about: ‘Who want fruit snacks?’ knowing good and well he got a Lemon Drop Martini in the zipper pocket.”
Cutwater Lemon Drop Martinis, as found in the lunchbox, are 11% ABV ready-to-drink cocktails made with vodka, triple sec, lemon juice and natural flavors.
They come in 12-ounce cans, similar in appearance to a soda can.
The City of South Fulton Police Department issued a statement after the apparent mishap. (City of South Fulton Police Department via Facebook)
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The department said it understands mornings can be hectic, but issued a stern notice to parents to “TIGHTEN UP.”
“Your child shouldn’t be the only one in the cafeteria with a beverage that requires an ID,” authorities wrote. “If it says 12% ABV… it does NOT belong next to a PB&J.”
Officials also provided a “quick parent checklist,” with items including: “Homework,” “Lunch packed,” and “Alcoholic beverages.”
Boxes of Cutwater Tiki Rum Mai Tai and Strawberry Margarita canned cocktails. (Gado/Getty Images)
“Check the lunchbox before the Fulton County Schools Police resource officers gotta do inventory at recess,” the department added.
It is unclear if any parents or students were disciplined in relation to the mix-up.
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Fulton County Schools did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The City of South Fulton, Georgia, is a rapidly growing municipality located about 20 minutes from Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
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