Jada Lee Jones (b. 1980), of Toledo, Ohio, served in the United States Army from 1997-1998. Jada Lee Jones was born 4 July 1980 in Toledo, Ohio. She attended Robert S. Rogers High School, and graduated in 1997 at the age of sixteen. Shortly before graduation, Jones came home from school to find a United States Army recruiter speaking with her mother, who had, without Jones' knowledge, enlisted her in the service. In June 1997, Jones traveled to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for basic training. This experience turned out to be traumatic for Jones, and she was repeatedly disciplined for not being on time and not following the instructions of the drill sergeants. Her goal became to get out of the army as quickly as possible. At the end of basic training, the army began out-processing Jones, and she was tasked with menial jobs on base, such as cleaning the bathrooms or working in the medical clinic doing paperwork, until her release from the army in February 1998. When Jones returned home, she found living with her mother and brother to be a difficult transition, so she petitioned for and was granted emancipation at the age of seventeen. From 1998 to 2000, Jones attended classes at Owens Community College in Toledo, and then moved to Los Angeles, California for a year, where she worked as a waitress. Jones then moved back to Ohio and started attending the University of Toledo. Jones later moved to China and taught English for a little over a year, before returning to the United States in 2006 and moving to Orlando, Florida. When she learned that her mother had developed breast cancer, Jones moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to be closer to her, but when her mother decided to move to Colorado, Jones chose to move to Burlington, North Carolina. Jones began attending classes at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), and finished her bachelor's in history in 2013. She then moved back to Orlando, but when she couldn't find employment, she moved back to North Carolina to pursue a master's in library and information studies at UNCG. While at UNCG, Jones received an assistantship with Special Collections and University Archives, and an internship with the Reference Department, both at the Walter Clinton Jackson Library. She graduated in 2015. Jones currently works as a Public Affairs Specialist with the Food and Drug Administration.
