Pvt. Joseph
N. Angelone was born in 1915 in Rockaway Beach, New
York and attended Far Rockaway High School. In a family
that averaged 5'5" in height, Joe towered over
everyone at around 5'11". He was inducted into
the U. S. Army on March 28, 1941 in Far Rockaway,
New York. Growing up on Beach 85th Street in Rockaway
Beach, Joseph was an avid swimmer, becoming a lifeguard
both on the beach and in the Rockaway’s Playland
swimming pool, then the largest in the US, that he
and his father, Nicholas, a cement contractor, had
built. In an era with no television, swimming kept
Joseph busy and was his passion.
He did his basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky,
where he also became a trained baker and cook. He
was assigned to the 753rd Tank Battalion and sent
to Camp Polk, Louisiana. It was at there that Joseph
volunteered to become a member of the 192nd Tank Battalion.
He was assigned to Headquarters Company.
192nd
Tank Battalion Patches |
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Traveling west by train, Joseph arrived at San Francisco.
His company was taken by ferry to Angel Island. While
there, they received physicals and inoculations for
duty in the Philippine Islands, at the time a US Territory.
