Joseph Wargo, US Navy, Machinist Mate 1st Class
Wounded Four Times
Joe enlisted in the Navy prior to the beginning of WWII. His enlistment date was January 24, 1941.and he served for six years. His discharge date was March 30, 1947. He went through boot camp at the Naval Training Center in Newport, RI. After boot camp he was assigned to the USS Dixie stationed at Pearl Harbor. From the Dixie he was transferred to the USS Whitney, a destroyer tender, when the Japanese attack decimated the islands and our fleet. Joe was in the midst of the sneak attack by the enemy. He recalls pulling wounded Navy personnel from the sea and attempting to put out fires on stricken ships. Apparently his ship was not the target of the enemy, the larger ships were. Navy volunteers were shuttled to the stricken battleship Arizona to fight raging fires in an attempt to save the ship. He survived the attack without a scratch but with heavy heart over the devastation the attack caused.
His next active duty was as part of the Navy support Group for the Doolittle raid upon Japan by the battle group Hornet. Later while aboard the USS Monssen, he was in the battle of the Coral Sea and Midway Island. Taking part of the Marine landing on Guadalcanal, his ship was sunk. Ashore on the island he was in support of the battle weary Marines. It was here that Joe received his first Purple Heart. He was shot in the back by a Jap sniper and spent the next few months recuperating in hospital in New Zealand.
Reassigned once again, he was part of a Navy Scouts & Raiders group whose duties were to clear land mines on the beach Bougainville. His amphibious landing craft was hit and sunk. Making it to shore he got a second Purple Heart when hit by frags from an enemy shell. He was returned to the states for a hospital stay.
In recalling the events of his participation, he notes that he served for the entire WW2 event in the Pacific. He was at Pearl when the Japs struck and was part of the fleet in Tokio Bay when the surrender was signed at the end of the war. Joe now resides in Trumbull with his wife. He is an officer in the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
