News Search

November's Excellent Airman

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Kasie Faddis
  • 117 Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

This month’s Excellent Airman is Technical Sgt. Brandon Jones, NCOIC of Travel within the 117th Air Refueling Wing (ARW) Comptroller Flight!

Jones has been a part of the 117th ARW since December of 2013 and has been Active-Guard Reserve for three years. He enlisted during his senior year of high school at 17-years-old, which required a waiver for his enlistment.

“I have a lot of family members that are in all different branches in the military and I love to save money,” said Jones. “I also needed money to help pay for college because my parents wanted me to go, but they were unable to save what I needed so I said I might as well join.”
In his free time, he considers himself a shade-tree mechanic because he enjoys working on his car himself to save money. He also volunteers at his local church and food bank doing outreach in his free time.

“I love to work on my car,” said Jones. “I always tell my dad if there is a YouTube video showing me how to do it, then I can do it myself.”

When Jones went off to college, initially it wasn’t something he saw much value in so he dropped his courses. His second college try was once again unsuccessful because he still wasn’t sure what he wanted to major in.

“I decided my first semester in college that I hated it so I dropped my classes and stopped going. Then I realized life is very expensive so I quickly rejoined and by my third attempt I figured out what I wanted to do,” said Jones. “I wanted to be in accounting because I liked money and I was working in a bank at the time.”

Jones graduated with a bachelor’s in accounting from Alabama State University in 2020, but unfortunately missed out on his graduation due to COVID. He decided to go back to school at Faulkner University for his master’s in accounting and graduated in December of 2023.

“My favorite thing about being out here is the family aspect. Everyone is close and everyone knows each other,” Jones said. “Everyone is close-knit, and it feels like one big happy family.”

His younger brother, Senior Airman Nicolas Jones, followed in his footsteps and joined the 117th Security Forces Squadron.