MAINE, USA — Maine native Jeffrey Jones died while fighting on the frontlines in Ukraine when he was killed by a mortar shell explosion on July 31, according to his father.
Jones, 48, was a U.S. Army veteran who grew up in Bowdoinham. He traveled to Ukraine twice last year to help with humanitarian aid efforts and went back in April to serve with the American Ukrainian Foundation, according to his family.
The foundation's founder, David Craig, said while Jeff helped him with humanitarian relief for four weeks, he knew Jeff's heart was somewhere else.
"His heart was really to go and do something with the people for the people," Craig said. "When you see firsthand, and he had seen it firsthand, what the Russians had done, you won't give up, you won't stop."
Craig drove Jeff to enlist as a foreign fighter in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
"He felt like it was his calling to go and do what he could. We had discussions about him getting wounded or getting killed and he's like 'I'm prepared for that. It's a moral calling for me,'" James Creamer, a good friend of Jeff, said.
Creamer said he talked to Jeff almost daily, and said Jeff would say he was compelled to help Ukraine.
"He said 'I've been over there, and I've seen what the Russians have done to the Ukrainians up close,'" Creamer said. "They're indiscriminately killing women, children, old people, and he said 'Somebody needs to put a stop to it.'"
Jones trained and worked alongside a young group of Brazilian men who nicknamed Jeff the "Grey Wolf," according to Creamer.
"Almost daily he would send me this thing, he's like 'I don't care what happens to me. I want to make sure these guys come back alive,'" Creamer said.
In a Facebook post, Jeff's father said he got a message from Jeff just a few hours before he died that read:
"We were supposed to have a couple days rest, but another company is too afraid to go so we are heading back out tonight in their place. Will be another 3-5 days."
"He said 'We're going to a section that nobody else wants to go to because they're too afraid.' He said 'I'll let you know when I get back,'" Creamer said.
That was the last message Creamer ever received. While it's difficult, Creamer said he knows Jeff died fulfilling his purpose.