<p><em>Joseph Frederick “Joe” Green</em> was born December 6, 1926 in Trilla, IL. Known over the years as both Joe and Fred, he was the third child born to Vernon Clarke Green and Beulah Munson. His two older siblings were named Vernon and Betty.<br />Joe grew up in several small Illinois towns, including Mattoon, Paxton, and Gibson City. In 1938, the family moved to Champaign. In both junior and senior high school, he was on the basketball, football and track teams, serving as captain of the football and track teams his junior and senior year. He was a gifted athlete and was ultimately inducted into the Champaign Central High School Athletic Hall of Fame, having won seven varsity letters, including two in basketball. <br />Joe started college at the University of Illinois in the fall of 1944, participating on the football team. However, in wartime, he felt a sense of duty and, in September 1945 he joined the U.S. Coast Guard-Merchant Marines as a radio officer/operator. He was stationed on the USS Massachusetts, completing several tours of duty, in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, and Adriatic Seas. His service ended in April 1946 when he was honorably discharged.<br />Around this time “Red” Blaik was determined to put together the best football team in the nation, already with greats Blanchard and Davis on his roster. He became aware of Joe’s football talents during the semester spent at Illinois and sought to recruit him to the West Point team. Joe received his appointment and started that July. He played football for the 1946 National Championship team as backup for Blanchard and later as a linebacker and punter. While at the Academy, he also threw the discus for the Track and Field Team. <br />Joe graduated from West Point in June 1950, the month the Korean War began, with a B.S. in military science, earning three varsity letters. He sustained a knee injury playing football, which was successfully repaired but called into question his fitness to be commissioned in the Army. On graduation day, he was introduced to Air Force General Hoyt Vandenburg, who learned Joe’s dilemma. Hoyt told him that, providing he could pass the physical, he would sponsor his commission to become a pilot in the Army Air Corps. After a short trip to the Pentagon to have the Air Force Surgeon General examine his knee, Joe received his commission and entered flight training with his class in August as a second lieutenant.<br />In October 1951, he entered the Korean War to serve as an F-84 fighter/bomber pilot on the battlefront. Flying a mission over North Korea, he was shot down in January 1952, crash-landing his plane on the banks of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. <br />After evading enemy troops for hours, he was captured just minutes before a rescue helicopter arrived to retrieve him. He was taken to Pyongyang for interrogation. Captors there faced grueling interrogations seeking military intelligence and false confessions of germ warfare. A fellow prisoner revealed that Joe graduated from West Point, which singled him out for the most severe treatment.<br />He was later moved to a slave-work camp for long exhausting days in service of the North Korean war effort. He became the de-facto leader of this group of prisoners, guiding them through their ordeal. <br />After several months, he was moved north to the Chinese border, where the Chinese would keep him for the remainder of the war: in solitary confinement, in a mud hut, and away from the other prisoners.<br />Prisoners kept near him learned that he was a West Point graduate and a member of the famous Class of ’46 Football Team. They did their part to lift his spirits by whistling the fight song “On Brave Old Army Team” as they passed nearby.<br />In early September 1953, at the end of 20 months, Joe was released in the “big switch” prisoner swap as part of the armistice that ended the fighting. He returned 16 days after his release to the great excitement of his family and the city of Champaign, which celebrated his heroism. He was honorably discharged from the service in August 1954 as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force with medals including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Korean Service Medal.<br />After returning home, Joe met and married Karel Kamerer in September 1955, and the two went on to raise a family, including daughter Julie and sons Joe and Denton.<br />Joe’s most recent role was as director of capital programs for the University of Illinois, from which he retired in 1992. During his work there, he oversaw many important projects, including the building of the Chicago Circle Campus, the Krannert Art Center, the Beckman Institute, and the Intramural PE Building.<br />We have often thought about Joe Fred’s POW experience when we have faced our own small adversities in life. Even though he left this world on April 15, 2018 after a very full 91 years, we know he has just entered a new chapter in his life story. In his hand-written notes to us, he emphasized how important education, sharing, and teamwork were to him, which certainly came through over his many years, as did his leadership, courage, inner strength of will, selfless giving to others, and great sense of duty. <br />A very devoted, humble, and witty husband, father, and grandfather, loyal friend, athlete, and war hero, we miss him dearly and have great admiration for how he lived his life here on earth.<br /><em>— His Loving Family</em></p>