Decorations: Combat Infantry Badge, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart
Joe was a gentle giant, the tallest boy in Millis High School, where he was a basketball star and from which he graduated in 1940. His first year in the Army was spent in Army Specialized Training Program. He was then transferred to the infantry. On his last furlough home before shipping out overseas, he told his sisters, Mary and Alexia, that he would not be seeing them again. "I'm too big a target." he said. He asked them not to tell his mother and father. He died in the battle of Normandy, France, of a gunshot wound to the chest. He was indeed too big a target. Joe is buried in the Brittany American Military Cemetery, France. His monument in Millis is at the corner of Main and Union Streets, near his boyhood home.

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