When war was declared on 3 September 1939, Ron Jones was put through full-time military training as an instructor. In February 1940 he was seconded from the regular army to the recruit-training depot at Liverpool Army Camp. He became a corporal section leader, and with friend Stan "Shanghai' Turner, was in command of a 'hut full of around fifty men.'
Ron soon found that he was in the company of veterans of the First World War. One morning an instructor reprimanded a veteran soldier for his slow reaction time during a routine bayonet fighting exercise. The man returned the next day wearing a Victoria Cross, the British Commonwealth's highest award for bravery 'in the face of the enemy.'
Ron Jones fondly remembers an incident at Liverpool Army Camp during a musketry test, when a recruit challenged him to shoot at the target. 'Bones Jones' as he was called, had developed a reputation of being a skilled marksman, but what happened next surprised even him. “I got down there and I thought I'll show 'em. I squeezed the trigger. 1 .... 2..... 3...... 10 shots, 10 bull’s-eyes. Now that's a possible - that means it is possible but it's not practical, no one can shoot 10 shots one after the other from 300 yards with a bull’s-eye the size of a dinner plate.
I got more respect after that day.”
Ron Jones successfully gained entry into the 2nd Australian Imperial Force, (AIF) which had established itself as one of the most legendary fighting units of the First World War. He became a member of the 2/13 Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel (later Brigadier) F.A. Burrows D.S.O., M.M., E.D., Polish Cross of Velour.  A veteran of the First World War Lt. Col. Burrows had served in Gallipoli and France.