David Charles Jones (July 9, 1921 – August 10, 2013) was a United States Air Force general and the ninth chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

After serving as a flying instructor in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas, Jones was assigned to the 3rd Emergency Rescue Squadron of the Fifth Air Force in Japan in 1945.

He was assigned initially in September 1954 as an operations planner in the bomber mission branch and remained there until January 1955, when General Curtis LeMay selected him as his aide.

Promoted to colonel in April 1957, Jones became director of materiel and later deputy commander for maintenance of SAC's 93rd Bombardment Wing at Castle AFB, California.

After F-100 and F-4 training, Jones assumed command of the 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing, Eglin AFB, Florida, at its activation in 1965 and bought it to operational status.

In February 1969 Jones was assigned to Headquarters Seventh Air Force, Tan Son Nhut Airfield, Vietnam, as deputy chief of staff for operations and became vice commander in June.

General Jones emphasized the needs of modernized the Air Force following the end of the Vietnam War and in order to stop the Soviet armored thrust.

That program was followed by the General Dynamics EF-111 to counter Soviet air mobile defenses, along with the Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS, which served to provide picture and detail of the airborne battlefield.

[9] Much of the modernization program was focused on the European area, where the United States developed initiatives in response to Department of Defense and congressional interest for an increase in the capability of NATO.

[6][3] General Jones became the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during a period of increasing of the Soviet military arsenal and the emerging of Muslim militias within the Persian Gulf region that was deemed as a threat within the Western world nations.

[3] General Jones also oversaw the increased funding for defense in response to the Soviet threat and due to the continuing Joint Chiefs of Staff advocacy of strategic force modernization.

[6][3] Jones accompanied President Jimmy Carter to Vienna, Austria, in June 1979 for the final stage of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II negotiations with the USSR.

Jones continued his efforts toward that goal after his retirement as chairman of the JCS and saw it come to fruition with the passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act in 1986.

[6] He retired from active-duty within the United States Air Force after his second term period as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff finished on June 18, 1982.

[12][13][14] Jones was the final Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to be decorated for service in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.