He was trained at the Imperial Academy as a fighter pilot, but during one of his missions as a TIE Bomber pilot, he discovered the true nature of the Galactic Empire's ideals. He was ordered to bomb his home planet. He simulated a failure in his Bomber and aborted the mission. He managed to escape the Imperials and joined the Rebel Alliance. Jon got the nickname "Dutch" from his Rebel friends. He became Gold Leader and was assigned to a Y-Wing, flying several campaigns for the Alliance with Gold Squadron.

During the Battle of Yavin, he was one of the first groups who flew into the Death Star trench. Dutch appointed Tiree (Gold Two) as point, followed by Gold Leader and Gold Five, who formed a buffer for enemy fighters. Dutch was very fond of Tiree because he saw that he could become one of the greatest pilots, and so he decided that Tiree would take the first shot over the veteran "Pops." Gold Leader chose an extremely close formation for his pilots; this is typical for the much faster TIE Fighters, but Gold Five believed this to be a mistake. As Gold Two was locking his target computer, Darth Vader shot him down. This caused Gold Leader to panic, saying that they were too close and he couldn't maneuver. Gold 5 tried to keep Dutch calm, but the latter yelled at him to "loosen up." A second later, Vader fired into Dutch's Y-wing, killing him instantly.

He had the emblem of the Specter Squadron on his helmet at the Battle of Yavin.