Joe DeMarco was born May 22, 1926 in Garfield, N.J., the youngest of four brothers in the DeMarco family.  His father had emigrated from Italy about the time of the Great War, looking for better opportunities; the times were tough though, especially with the advent of the Great Depression.  Joe recalls that everyone was poor though, and that the family managed to make ends meet.  Joe left school at 16 to help out, and it gave him the time to develop his new passion:  big band music and the drums.  He ended up playing locally with a band for a number of years, and during this time he met his future wife Norma.  Pearl Harbor would be the event that impacted Joe and his brothers – and his generation. Joe’s second and third brother enlisted soon after, one serving in the air force ground crew in north Africa and Italy, and the other in the army as a truck driver.  Joe had to wait until he was 18, and when he went in he chose the navy.  He went into training and was assigned to LST-800, bound for the Pacific, where he was a seaman (first class),  serving as a second gunner.  They shipped out in 1944, heading for Ulitihi and Guam, but Iwo Jima is where they would play their major role, ferrying men and materiel to the beach during that fateful battle.  Joe’s ship was fortunate:  they did not experience heavy naval or aerial assaults from the Japanese.  As the Pacific War wound down, they made a stop in Japan shortly after the atomic bombs, and then they headed back home.  Joe was discharged on June 6, 1946 – exactly two years after his service began.  He headed home and reconnected with family – and Norma.  The two of them married in 1947, going on to find their way in postwar America.  Joe DeMarco was interviewed at his home in Jay, N.Y. by Scott Masters in July 2025.