Grady Jones
David D. Dorton
Communications & Legislative Affairs Director
Grady Jones
Corporal, USMC
Corporal Grady Jones was born in Falls Church, Virginia, on May 23, 1947. The son of a military family, Grady lived in many places before settling in Auburn in 1961. A football player for the Auburn High Tigers, Grady graduated from Auburn High School. He spent one year at Livingston College before he decided to enlist with the Marine Corps in 1968.
Grady made it through recruit training at Paris Island then went to Camp Lejeune for infantry training. While in Camp Lejeune, the Marines were looking for 22 volunteers to become dog handlers. Grady, who had always had a dog growing up, was eager to volunteer. He was selected and went to Fort Benning for training.
Grady served as a scout dog handler in Vietnam from July to November of 1969. He was paired with a dog named Inky who had been in Vietnam for two years before Grady arrived. Grady and Inky walked point, searching for potential hazards that were buried such as mines, trip wires, ambushes or punji pits.
Grady’s first assignment was to go up north to the Vandegrift Combat Base. They were preparing to start an operation called Georgia Tar. At that time, the area around Quang Tri, Dong Ha and the Rockpile (also known as Elliot Combat Base) was taking a lot of fire. His battalion was sent out to search for where it was coming from and try to clear them out.
The first afternoon out on assignment, Grady and Inky were on point as they dredged through elephant grass. Inky was on a 25-foot leash in front of Grady and suddenly stopped. Grady called Inky back and told him to keep going, but when Inky stopped a second time, Grady knew he had found something. They discovered a booby trap a few feet ahead of Inky going across the trail — a thin trip wire attached to mortar rounds and explosives. Later that same afternoon, Inky kept them from hitting an anti-personnel mine — saving so many marines’ lives in one day.
Grady and Inky were often out at night on a listening post, taking advantage of Inky’s exceptional hearing to pick up any movement nearby. While having a dog with him gave Grady a bit of an advantage, it was a dangerous position as he had to keep his eyes solely on Inky, not on his surroundings. Because of that, Grady traveled with a bodyguard and a Navy hospital corpsman.
Though Grady didn’t expect to come back to the states so soon, the third marine division that he was a part of was pulled out, and he went back to Camp Lejeune.
Grady left the Marines and returned home to Auburn, where he began a career with the Auburn Police Department. Grady played a large role in pioneering many programs that the Auburn Police Department still caries out today, most notably, the DARE program.
Grady brought the national DARE program to Auburn, working closely with Auburn City Schools to teach drug prevention to Auburn’s fifth and sixth graders. Grady also started the summer DARE camp for graduating fifth graders, giving students a chance to connect before entering sixth grade and to learn more about public safety in Auburn with the help of other police officers, firefighters and community volunteers. Grady was president of the Alabama DARE Officer Association in 1995 and helped equip officers from other police departments across the southeast to start their own DARE programs. Before the department had dedicated school resource officers, Grady was assigned to the schools, protecting Auburn’s children.
Grady’s love for dogs continued into his time with the Auburn Police Department where he helped start the K9 program. He played a part in starting the department’s Neighborhood Watch efforts, and he was one of the first members of the motorcycle unit. Grady regularly represented the department in speaking engagements at different civic groups, churches, schools and other organizations, and he even doubled as McGruff, the crime-fighting dog. He served as a hostage negotiator for the SWAT team for more than 15 years, during which he helped peacefully resolve hostage situations including a more than 20-hour negotiation that took place in 1989.
Grady retired from the Auburn Police Department after 28 years, but he didn’t stop serving the Auburn community. He was an active member of the Billy Stelpflug detachment of the Marine Corps League, attending all of the City of Auburn’s Memorial Day and Veterans Day services and participating in community outreach efforts. He was an active member of the Auburn Veterans Committee for years, and was a member of Parkway Baptist Church.