Many Vietnam veterans don’t have any fond memories of one of the worst wars in world history.

Mike Jones does.

It was during his service in the United States Army that Jones, now a Decatur insurance agent, began playing the sport that led to his induction into the Alabama Amateur Softball Association Hall of Fame.

“I actually got started playing softball in the Army,” said Jones, who served from 1966-68. “I played all the sports the Army had to offer. Baseball was a big game during those times, too. We were playing a high level of sports.”

Jones, 63, will be inducted in a ceremony Saturday in Dothan, but had it not been for Vietnam, he might have finished his career in a different hall of fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The former Decatur High baseball star was discovered and signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1965 and was scheduled to report to the team’s affiliate in the Caribbean League that fall.

“That’s when Uncle Sam called and said, ‘You’ve been drafted,’ ” Jones said. “So I went to Vietnam instead of the Caribbean League.”

While serving in the military, Jones was traded to the then-Kansas City Athletics. But, after his time in Vietnam, his new team no longer needed his services.

“I was 23 years old, and there were only 16 big league teams back then,” Jones recalled. “The talent level was pretty high. They said, ‘Look, if we have 20-year-olds who can do the same thing, we’ll go with them.’ It just wasn’t feasible.”

That’s when Jones resumed his softball career.

He began fast-pitch softball in 1969 and won “seven or eight state championships” over nearly three decades.

“It’s hard to officially say how many state titles I’ve won,” Jones said. “I’m not sure if they have records that go that far back.”

His contributions to the local softball scene include playing in the first games at Point Mallard and Wilson Morgan parks. A former shortstop, he’s also played at Delano Park, where the Decatur High softball team now plays.

“I’ve been around Decatur all my life,” he said. “I know everybody who played at the old field where Gateway Shopping Center is now. Young people may not know that there was a ballpark there when I was a kid.”

Jones has attended several Alabama Amateur Softball Association Hall of Fame induction ceremonies before, but he remains humble about watching this year’s ceremony from a different perspective.

“It will be quite meaningful because I was looking at who’s already in there. I’ve played against a lot of them,” Jones said. “We always played a high-caliber type of softball, and it will be good to go in with those guys.”

Jones excelled in both fast-pitch and slow-pitch softball. He began playing slow-pitch in the latter part of his career and won a state title in 1993. That year, he said, was one of the most memorable of his career.

“I was 48 years old, and the next oldest guy on the team was 25 or 26. It was fun to still be able to keep up,” he said.

Jones was also a member of softball teams that finished in the top four nationally. Jones and teammates finished third in the 1984 national tournament in Fargo, N.D., and finished fourth at nationals five years later in Las Cruces, N.M.

Jones stopped playing softball in 1995 and has since been playing in a men’s senior division baseball league. He said he still plays some church league softball.

“I’m so glad to be recognized for doing something so long,” Jones said. “It’s a little different with me because I’m being inducted for fast-pitch as well as slow-pitch.”