Joseph S. “Joe” Giacobello was born on June 30, 1919, in Mount Union, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Santo Giacobello and Mary J. Pagana Giacobello. He was the husband of Helen L. Rohrer Giacobello.
Joseph was a graduate of Mount Union High School, Class of 1938, and attended Shippensburg State Teachers College, where he was a standout football and basketball player until he was drafted into the military.
He was drafted into the United States Army on June 17, 1942, and was assigned to the infantry. Giacobello did his basic training at Camp Pickett, Virginia, followed by Officer’s Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia. He went overseas with the 35th Infantry Division, Co. F, 2nd Battalion, 137th Infantry Regiment, arriving in Normandy on July 5, 1944, and in combat on July 11, fighting in the hedgerows of St. Lo.
Captain Giacobello led his company in an attack on the village of Hellimer, France, on November 21, 1944. During this action, he and two other soldiers stopped a self-propelled 88mm gun, and then he knocked out a Panther tank. The following day, he was wounded for the second time.
In December of that year, Giacobello earned the Distinguished Service Cross in a fierce battle in Sarreguemines, France, against two German infantry companies, in which his company liberated 995 allied prisoners.
On December 12, the 137th Infantry entered Germany. Later in the month, the 35th Division took part in the Battle of the Bulge, helping to relieve Bastogne. The Division attacked across the Roer River on February 23, 1945, and pierced the Siegfried Line. At this time, Captain Giacobello was granted a furlough and sent back to the United States where his assignment was to prepare for the invasion of Japan.
At the end of the war, he returned to his home in Mount Union and became the owner and operator of J.S. Giacobello Distributors, a family-owned business. He was a life member of the Mount Union American Legion and VFW and was active in the community.
Gaicobello died on February 16, 2019, in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He is now buried in the Mount Union Cemetery in Pennsylvania.
Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.shipnc.com