JOE CIARAMETAR • VIETNAM WAR
Joe Ciarametaro, 79
Gloucester, MA
Born: 6/25/1946
Born/Raised: Gloucester
Rank: E-4/Corporal
Unit: US Marine Corps, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, Infantry Group
Dates of Service: 1965-1970 USMC Ret.
The son of “Baby Rose” Captain Peter and Florence Ciarametaro, Joseph Ciarametaro was born down the Fort and then raised on Washington Street along with his three sisters and a brother. His parents owned and operated the Gloucester Grocery Boat & Supply on Rogers Street for 45 years.
Joe graduated from Gloucester High School in 1965 and along with friends Ron White and Rick Pino, enlisted via the “buddy system” in the US Marine Corps in late July of that year. His training began at Parris Island and then off to Camp Geiger in North Carolina, Vieques Puerto Rico and Camp Pendleton before shipping off to Hoi An, Vietnam in the fall of 1966.
During a firefight in January 1967 near Da Nang, a Navy medic, Phil Valdez who was wounded during his own efforts to save two other wounded marines, died in his arms. Years later he and his wife Priscilla would meet and spent time with Valdez’s family in New Mexico while on a hunting trip. They remain in contact.
He served on the ground in the infantry group of the Marines until May 1967 when he was grievously wounded in the chest and shoulders near Danang. He laid wounded in a field for twelve hours before he could be evacuated. First sent to a hospital in the Philippines, Joe was then sent to a hospital in Yokohama Japan where he was given last rites. Not willing to give up, Joe was eventually sent stateside in June 1967, to the Chelsea Naval Hospital right before his 21st birthday.
He spent nearly a year recovering from his injuries. Four months after arriving at the Chelsea Naval Hospital, in October 1967, he married his girlfriend, Priscilla Laurie, who he had started dating before shipping off to Vietnam. They’ve been married for 57 years with three sons: Peter, Joseph “JJ” and Kyle; seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. One of his grandsons, Joey, currently serves in the US Army. Joe retired from the Marines in July 1970.
After his recovery, Joe enrolled at RETS Electronics School and was trained as a printed circuit board designer, a career he held until his retirement in 1995. He is an avid hunter. “I consider myself lucky because I got to fulfill my life’s ambition of becoming a Marine.”