MORGANTOWN – “Thank you for being worth serving.”
That was the message FOX News host Johnny “Joey” Jones shared with local Republicans at Thursday night’s Monongalia County Republican Executive Committee Reagan Dinner fundraiser at the Lakeview Golf Resort and Spa.
Jones, a retired Marine staff sergeant and Explosive Ordinance Disposal Technician, lost his legs to an IED in 2012. He shared his story and what it means to his life with the approximately 400 attendees.
It could have been a sad or angry story, but Jones’ message was positive, with a strong dose of humor that kept the audience laughing through his 40-minute talk.
“I wasn’t raised in a trailer park,”I was raised in a parked trailer.”
He made frequent reference to his prosthetic legs. “People ask, ‘How much did those legs cost?’ I say, ‘I don’t know, you paid for them.’” Looking down at one, he said, “This one’s still owned by the VA. It just quits every now and then for no good reason.”
And when he was on the ground after the explosion, he had to reassure the triage medic who was in his first weeks of deployment. They looked at each other, and Jones said, “’Just say the Lord’s Prayer with me and we’re going to be OK.’ We go, ‘Our Father, who art in Heaven,’ and there’s silence. And we both kind of give the ‘Oh’ look. And finally I go, ‘And liberty and justice for all.’”
Amid the funny stories, he built to his point. “Aug. 6, 2010, was the day I was blown up. It changed my life forever, for sure. Aug. 8, 2010, what happened on that day is why I’m standing here right now.”
That was the day he awoke in a German hospital. The first thing he asked the nurse tending to him as he was coming to was where his partner was. She looked him over, smiled a bit.
“She says, ‘Don’t worry, Hon. You’re going to walk again.’ In that moment, she changed the trajectory of my life forever. She did that by telling me what I needed to hear, when I needed to hear it, even when that wasn’t what I was asking.”
If she had told him about his partner, he said, he would have been sidetracked with guilt and worry. But when he finally did see him, he had already decided to walk again.”
He told the audience, they don’t have to get blown up to learn that lesson. They can change the trajectory of someone’s life by telling them exactly what they need.
He didn’t give up because he had responsibilities, he said. “I had no choice but to get out of that hospital bed.” And every person in the room is doing that: dealing with challenges but choosing to deal with them while still fulfilling their responsibilities.
“That’s what inspires me. That’s what makes this country amazing.”
That gets back to where we started this story. When people would tell him, “Thank you for your service,” he didn’t know what to say back.
But a buddy reminded him, “When someone says, Thank you for your service,’ you just look back and say. ‘Thank you for being worth serving.’ So that’s my message tonight. It’s real simple. Thank you for being worth serving.”
While it was a Republican dinner, Jones didn’t touch on the topics that he deals with on various FOX news programs: wokeism, leftism, elections, economics, the other political party (except for a small barb here and there).
But others spoke earlier in the evening – Gov. Patrick Morrisey, Secretary of State Kris Warner, and others. Morrisey touched on most of those topics.
Morrisey touted some of his actions so far in his term: eliminating DEI from state government, banning transgender treatments for children, enacting the Riley Gaines act regarding biological makes in women’s sports.
Looking ahead, he talked about West Virginia’s energy future and using half the revenue generated by the microgrid legislation passed during the 2025 legislative session to help eliminate the state income tax.
“I’m happy to be here in Mon County tonight,” he said, “because I know together we’re going to keep West Virginia strong, safe and free. And ultimately, we’re going to be that shining state in the mountains.”
