Biography Part II At the height of World War II Joseph Canales lied about his age to join the Navy because his mother refused to sign the authorization because he was her only child. During his service Joseph Thomas Joaquin Canales served in the US Navy at the rank of Seaman First Class. He served in the Solomon Islands, the Phillipines, the Marianas and the Hebrides. During the Philippines battle he says lived with regret and uncertainty. He said that they were dug in at night without a light. They heard movement up ahead but had no way of communicating with our own people. So instead of letting the enemy get the jump on them they opened fire without knowing if it was friendly or hostile. Back then you had to shoot first and ask questions later if you wanted to live. He said there was a lot of Americans killed by friendly fire incidents during the war against Japan. He got a lot of pictures of the Philippines while he was there. He also received an autographed photo of Marilyn Monroe. He was serving as a mechanic on the island of Tinian when the Enola Gay stopped there on its way to dropping the first nuclear weapon in history. He said they had it fenced, camouflaged and heavily guarded. Even US military personnel were not allowed any where near it which raised the curiosity of the people stationed on the island as well as that of the locals. People kept trying to get a look to find out what was being hidden and guarded so heavily. Toward the end of the war he stationed as part of the defensive forces at Guadalcanal. He said that they had to duck constantly because of Japanese snipers who refused to believe that the war had ended. When he returned to Los Angeles Joseph Thomas Canales received an honorable discharge. Today with the passing of Joseph Thomas Joaquin Canales, we have lost another veteran of World War II, another American who defended this country from Nazism and Japanese Imperialism. We have also lost another American who made it through the great depression the greatest economic crises in American history.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 20:03:21 +0000
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