Full circle: Avella grad back as head of Pittsburgh FBI
PITTSBURGH – In September 2016, Robert Allan Jones disclosed a case of homesickness.
“As I’ve matured, I’m getting a feel to come back home,” he told the Observer-Reporter. “I’ve gone everywhere with the anticipation I’ll get back to Western Pennsylvania.”
Exactly two years later, Jones is back. As it turns out, he wasn’t the only member of his family who was longing for home.
“I promised my wife 32 years ago I would bring her back to Pittsburgh,” Jones said. “I’m making good on that promise.”
This summer, Jones was named special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office – a position that has him overseeing more than 300 agents, intelligence analysts and support staff in the country’s principal federal law enforcement agency. He and his wife, Erin, recently purchased a home in Peters Township.
“It feels good to be a resident again,” said Jones.
Photo courtesy of Robert Jones
For more than 30 years, Jones’ job has been protecting the country – first as a Marine and then as an FBI agent. He has investigated everything from drugs and violent crimes to white-collar cases. Often, his focus has been counterterrorism.
After graduating from Pennsylvania State University, Jones entered the Marines. He was awarded a Bronze Star for extracting his platoon from an attack in a Saudi Arabian village during Operation Desert Storm.
After 10 years of service, he joined the FBI. Early in his career, he was honored for the dismantlement of a domestic terrorist group. He later served as the chief of the Usama (Osama) Bin Laden Unit of the Counterterrorism Division, senior liaison to the Joint Special Operations Command – the organization that helped kill bin Laden in a 2011 raid by Navy SEALs – and legal attaché in Kabul, Afghanistan.
He helped train members of Joint Special Operations Command in technique and procedure, such as site exploration in a combat zone and interviewing through translators.
Photo courtesy of Robert Jones
His career has included leadership roles at headquarters in Washington, D.C., at field offices in Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland and Indianapolis, and in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His goal, though, has always been to return to the place where he got his start.
Jones is a 1982 graduate of Avella High School. His parents, Robert and Bernadette, still live in the area, and his in-laws reside in Munhall.
“It’s been great to be able to see my parents and just drop over,” he said.
Daughter Lauren lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and son Shane lives in the Pittsburgh area.
Jones has spent the first few months in his new position meeting with elected officials and local police departments, with which the FBI often collaborates. Those collaborations are often beneficial to both groups, said Jones, because police departments know the area so well, while the FBI is able to provide the resources of a federal agency and training that officers can take back to their departments with them.
The Pittsburgh bureau oversees five resident agencies in West Virginia and four in Western Pennsylvania. Resources are directed toward problems in the area. As the region has been plagued by the opioid epidemic, Jones said efforts have been directed there.
Jones said the best aspect of his job is that every day is different.
“I get to do a job I love in my hometown,” he said.