About
World War II (1939-1945)
Joseph John Karrol was born in Witherbee, New York, on May 15, 1915. In 1925, he and his family moved to the city of Schenectady so his father could start a job at General Electric. He was a student at Nott Terrace High School and spent a couple of years in the army before being discharged and then reenlisting in the navy.
Joseph reenlisted in the United States Navy in 1936. He attended the seventeen-week communications service "Class A" school. After he graduated, he was transferred to the USS Yorktown (CV-5). The USS Yorktown was an aircraft carrier and was damaged during the Battle of the Coral Sea; she had to dock in Pearl Harbor on May 27, 1942, to be repaired. The USS Yorktown left Pearl Harbor on May 30, 1942. The ship steamed toward a point northeast of Midway called "Point Luck," and on June 4, 1942, they were attacked by the Japanese. Joseph was Lieutenant Adams Radioman-Gunner on a SBD that took off from the USS Yorktown. He and Lieutenant Adams were seen entering a cloud formation but were never seen again. Three days later, on June 7, 1942, the USS Yorktown was torpedoed and sunk. He is remembered at the Honolulu Memorial, Courts of the Missing in Hawaii. Joseph’s wife remained a widow for seventy-four years, and her stone reads "With God and Her Sailor Now".
*Radioman Second Class
Sources: The Schenectady Gazette, Find A Grave, Ancestry