Joseph Natale
Joseph Carmine Natale (“Joe”)(service number #1233158) is a first generation American born of Italian immigrant parents on March 26,1930 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He lived at 289 Walnut Street and was one of eleven children .Joseph was raised in and actively practiced the Roman Catholic faith. He graduated from 8th grade and completed two and a half years of the local high schools academic curriculum before leaving school to help support his family. His last civilian position before entering military service was in 1949 as an employee of the Automatic Manufacturing Company in Newark, New Jersey where he worked as a stock clerk. Joseph Natale, Selective Service Number 28 16 30 181 received the news that he had been drafted at his home in Newark. He said he was proud to serve his country because his older brother Russell had served in World War II and he looked up to him and admired his service. He was inducted into the military on October 15,1951 (DHRS New York, NY) and was appointed as a private, first class in the United States Marine Corps.
Joe trained first at Paris Island and then was sent for advanced weapons training at Camp Pendleton. From there Joe travelled by troop transport carrier to Kobe Japan and then to Korea after a short layover.
While in Korea Joe was a proof tech for small arms.He served at locations such as Inchon, The “Hook” and “Bunker Hill”. On August 13, 1952 while engaging in combat as a portable tripod machine gunner responding to mortar attacks in order to secure a critical location, Joe was wounded in action at Chang-Dan by mortar fire in the shoulder and chest. He subsequently received the purple heart for his actions.
Joe served one year, eleven months and twenty one days on active duty in the Korean War with the majority of that service overseas in Korean active combat locations.On October 6,1953 Joe was moved from active duty to the First Marine Corps Reserve Unit. Joe continued to serve in the Marine Reserves until October 14, 1959.
He later moved to Iselin, New Jersey where he remained single throughout his life following baseball and current events(he reads the newspaper every day) and spending time with his proud extended family.
Memories provided by Joseph Natale to his niece(by marriage) Jacquelyn Burt
Joe’s Geneva Convention Card
Korean War - Key Events
April 25, 1951
Vastly outnumbered UN forces check the Chinese advance on Seoul at the Battles of Kapyong and the Imjin River. Two Commonwealth battalions—the 2nd Battalion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Regiment and the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment—rebuff an entire Chinese division at Kapyong, and 4,000 men of the British 29th Brigade stage a successful delaying action against nearly 30,000 troops of the Chinese 63rd Army at the Imjin River. Some 650 men of the 1st Battalion, the Gloucestershire Regiment (the “Glorious Glosters”), engage in a Thermopylae-like stand against more than 10,000 Chinese infantry at Imjin. Although the overwhelming majority of the Glosters are killed or captured, their sacrifice allows UN forces to consolidate their lines around the South Korean capital.
These events are taken from the Encyclopedia Britannica
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