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Honoring a defining moment

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Near a Valley Center meadow, deep within a huge swath of undeveloped land known as Rancho Guejito, a stone monument was dedicated Thursday and blessed by a retired Navy chaplain.

The monument — erected just a few feet from the faded wreckage of a Navy jet fighter — honors all members of the armed services, especially the young ensign who safely ejected from the fighter 59 years ago.

It was Nov. 5, 1957, when 22-year-old Navy pilot Robert Jones was testing a new FJ-4B Fury jet his squadron had recently been issued. While flying over Palm Springs, the engine overheated.

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Jones glided the jet back toward what was then Naval Air Station Miramar, but was forced to bail out as westerly winds slowed the plane and caused it to lose altitude. The unmanned jet flew on and out of sight.

A few years ago, cowhands at Rancho Guejito — the privately owned 36-square-mile ranch west of Escondido — came upon the wreckage in the rugged, mountainous northern reaches of the property called Chimney Flats.

Several fires had thinned out the brush in the area, exposing the weathered, rusted, and mostly intact fuselage of the fighter.

In 2014, Hank Rupp, the chief operations officer and general counsel for the ranch, was entertaining a guest who was a former aviation accident investigator for the Israeli army. Together they rode horses to the wreckage and the guest immediately recognized the Fury as a military jet.

Research followed, the Navy and Marine Corps were notified, and last year Jones was reunited with the plane.

“It was very touching for him to be reunited with the aircraft,” Rupp said. “He told us later on it was one of the most monumental days of his life. I thought monumental, hmm. I thought we should do more than just that temporary visit and put a monument here. It’s a great story.”

Jones, now 80 and a resident of the state of Washington, could not attend the ceremony because his wife is very ill. A few days after the 1957 incident he was back flying for the Navy, and later went on to have a 30-year-career as a commercial airline pilot. He still flies private aircraft today.

Attached to the the 5-foot by 3-foot stone monument is a plaque that briefly tells Jones’ story about safely ejecting at 12,000 feet while over Lake Henshaw and then watching the unmanned jet fly off into the clouds.

“Fifty seven years later, on Feb. 5, 2015, Jones, 79, his wife Sylvia and son Kris visited the scene and was presented the jet’s tail hook by Rancho Guejito,” the plaque read. “This monument was dedicated in June 2016 to honor all those men and women who serve in the United States armed forces.”

Pastor David Plank blessed the shrine, said a few words about the courage of Jones and all who have served, and then along with about a dozen guests enjoyed a nice lunch beneath a huge oak tree.

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