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Two lines appear year after year in the <em>REGISTER OF GRADUATES</em>. Necessarily brief, there is much which they fail to describe. Some information worthy of recollection are:</div>
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...that Joe’s early years were typified by a scarcity of material goods. He was the third of four sons born to parents who were hard working Italian immigrants. They took pride in the fact that their son had developed a positive attitude towards formal education. Moreover, Joe demonstrated self reliance as he worked and studied to put himself through two years of aeronautical engineering at the University of Cincinnati prior to his appointment to West Point.</div>
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...that Joe’s four years at West Point were marked by a high scholastic performance, a strong willingness to work hard, and the added inclination to enjoy life and the good times which he also found at the Academy. The paragraph in the 1940 <em>HOWITZER</em> describes this well:</div>
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“First class year saw him with both stars and lieutenant’s chevrons, but neither T.D. nor the Academic Board could reward him for his most valuable qualities, a ready wit, a cheery smile, and a boundless generosity.”</div>
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Joe finished 23d in a class of 448 but the joys which come with June Week were considerably dimmed as be rushed home to the bedside of his mother who died three short days after his graduation.</div>
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...that after graduation leave, Joe reported to Texas where he found that his love of flying was unrequited and so he turned for solace to the Signal Corps.</div>
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...that he then reported to Fort Lewis, Washington, and subsequently sailed for the Philippines in the early autumn of 1941.</div>
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...that on the troop ship, the Holbrook, Joe met an attractive Army nurse named Phyllis Arnold who hailed from Minneapolis.</div>
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...that Japan's “infamous hour” and the start of World War II forced Joe and Phyllis to squeeze a lifetime into a few short months...that on one occasion in the defense of Bataan, the east and west flank generals were having difficulty making contact and Joe personally took over the radio phone and was able to establish communications.</div>
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...that Joe married Phyllis on 14 February 1942 and the last time they saw each other was on 24 May 1942, several days after the fall of Corregidor.</div>
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...that Phyllis along with her fellow nurses and civilian personnel was sent to Santo Tomas Internment Camp while Joe, together with other military personnel ended up in Cabanatuan Prison Camp.</div>
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...that several survivors of the Philippine internment period were later to marvel at Joe’s ability to maintain good spirits and high morale not only for himself but for his fellow prisoners as well.</div>
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...that the liberation of the Philippines and Phyllis’ subsequent return to the United States where she met Joe’s family for the first time, changed abruptly from a period of joyful anticipation to one of tragic sorrow. In the last year of the war on 15 March 1945, a week before his 29th birthday, Joe died in Fukuoka Sub Camp 1, Kyushu, Japan, of starvation, dysentery and exposure.</div>
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EPILOGUE</div>
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Sometime after the end of the war Phyllis married Bruce Adams, an architect, educator and gentleman. They have three grown children and reside together in New Haven, Connecticut. As for Joe, his memory lingers on. This is evidenced by the fact that long after his death, a number of classmates, on different occasions, each took it upon himself to make a call of courtesy to members of his family. The most recent was when Lou Mendez, passing through Cincinnati thirty years after Joe’s death, phoned Joe’s brother just to bestow a warm “hi.”</div>
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<em>—Phyllis Adams, Frank A. lacobucci</em></div>