Attorney Joseph “Jay” Jones remembered taking his son, Jason B. Jones, to view the wreckage of the World Trade Center in March 2002.

The site was still smoldering, emergency personnel were still working, and families continued to remember their lost loved ones by leaving photos, notes and flowers.

There was a moment when Jones saw a telling sign on his son’s face.

“When we left that site of 9/11, there was just this look in his eye that said, ‘This should not have happened. This should not happen again,’” Jones said. “I think it was at that moment that he decided he was going to go into the military.”

Twelve years later, U.S. Captain Jason B. Jones, 29, lost his life fighting for his country.

“We just miss him so, so much,” Jones said. “It’s just beyond painful. Anybody who loses a child - I don’t know what can be more excruciating than that.”

Jones, of Orwigsburg, said people remember his son as incredibly humble and modest. He graduated with honors from Blue Mountain High School in 2003, and was accepted into the prestigious West Point Military Academy.

“In his third year, he decided to go into the most difficult major they had: nuclear engineering,” Jones said. “When we heard that, we said, ‘Holy smokes.’”

Jason assured his father and his mother, Suzy, that he could do it.

“Then we go to graduation and we had never seen his grades. We’re thinking he’d be middle of the pack,” Jones said. “Well, he finished sixth in his class.”

He received his diploma in 2007 from Vice President Dick Cheney.

His family would later learn that he never wore a uniform pin given to those with the highest academics. They weren’t surprised. Jason wasn’t one to brag.

“He was so modest,” Jones said.

With the Top 10 rank, Jason could have selected to serve just about anywhere, his father said.

“He could have chosen Hawaii. He could have chosen anything because he was in the Top 6,” Jones said. “So Jason picked the 82nd Airborne. He went into the infantry. A nuclear engineer goes into the infantry.”

Jason was assigned to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, where he completed the Army Infantry Officer Basic Course, Army Ranger School and Army Airborne School.

“Then he gets deployed to Iraq, commanding a company in Baghdad. He made it through there OK,” his father said of Jason’s 2008-09 tour as platoon leader with the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

He returned and finished two years of training to become a Green Beret.

His next deployment was as special forces operational detachment Alpha commander with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (A).

He left for Afghanistan in April 2014.

He was killed in action near Jalalabad on June 2, 2014.

“It is just beyond painful,” Jones said. “But we decided we are going to be brave. We go to all the memorials, we go to parades for Memorial Day.”

While difficult, Jones appreciates the support he and his family receives from the community and those who served with Jason.

He also is thankful for the Captain Jason Jones Memorial Foundation (www.captainjasonjones.com). Established by his high school friends, it gives back to soldiers, veterans and their loved ones in Jason’s honor.

The Foundation hosts a number of fundraisers, including an annual golf tournament.

“His men loved him,” Jones said. “A lot of them come to the golf tournament from all over the country.”

They’ll share stories about Jason, he said.

“He was not a screamer or a yeller. He was very, very even-keeled. Mild mannered you might say, but forceful in a good way. He just had this commanding presence about him even though he wasn’t ebullient or loud or anything like that,” Jones said.

He recalled how folks could buy chairs for the Blue Mountain basketball team. A dozen of them were purchased in Jason’s memory. A Hometown Heroes banner with his photo hangs in Orwigsburg’s center square; there’s a memorial to him at the Blue Mountain High School and the local Little League organization named a new pavilion in his honor.

“The local community has just been so supportive. They haven’t forgotten him,” Jones said.

And, he noted, the outpost where Jason was stationed in Afghanistan now bears his name.

“He was such a great kid,” Jones said.

Jason is buried at the West Point Cemetery.