Welcome to the Military Response to Jonestown website, a project of the San Diego State University’s Digital Archive on Jonestown & Peoples Temple.

This site documents the U.S. military’s role and joint recovery efforts undertaken in Guyana following the 1978 Jonestown tragedy—the largest intentional loss of American civilian life prior to the 9/11 attacks.

Exclusive to this site are interviews with military and government personnel, government documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, academic studies, and photograph collections.

This site began in 2019 as a project of Dr. Preston Jones, a history professor at John Brown University and creator of the War and Life oral history site, and Kim Johnson, an instructional designer at the university. We are indebted to their initiative in locating and identifying those involved in the Jonestown body lift, and appreciate their hard work in conducting in-depth interviews over the years. In 2025, management of the site was transferred to the Digital Archive on Jonestown & Peoples Temple at San Diego State University, where it is currently administered by Aliah Mohmand and Shannon Howard.

As this project discusses a historical event that involves complex and confusing memories, information on this site—particularly that of interviewees and primary source records—will occasionally contain errors. When necessary, the managers of this site have added contextual notes and links to additional resources to help contextualize and correct information. As always, a comprehensive understanding of Peoples Temple and Jonestown necessitates the examination of as many perspectives as possible, cross-referencing records, and approaching each individual account with careful consideration of its context and limitations.