The New York Times reports that “Gen. David C. Jones, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Carter and Reagan administrations helped set in motion a sweeping reorganization of the nation’s military command, died on Saturday in Potomac Falls, Va. He was 92.”

“The cause was Parkinson’s disease, his daughter Kathy Franklin said in confirming the death on Wednesday. The general had lived in a military retirement community in Potomac Falls.”

“General Jones served longer than any predecessor on the Joint Chiefs, first as the Air Force chief of staff (1974-78) and then as chairman (1978-82). It was under his watch during the Carter administration that a mission to rescue 53 American hostages in Iran ended in disaster.”

“General Jones was a bomber pilot in the Korean War, but he represented a new generation of officers whose rise in the military hierarchy owed more to their administrative and strategic planning skills than to their combat exploits.”