Joseph John Palko was born on 7 November 1916 in Hazle Brook, Pennsylvania, a small community on the outskirts of Hazleton in the coal region of Northeast PA. His father John Palko, Sr. was born in Czechoslovakia, and his mother Anna Lehet Palko was the daughter of Czechoslovakian immigrants. Joseph had two older brothers, John Jr. and Stephen, and a younger sister, Mary. Like most immigrants in the region, Joseph’s father was a laborer in the coal mines.

Joseph graduated from Foster Township High School in Freeland, PA in 1935 and was employed as a truck driver for Matuella’s Milk Company in Hazleton. He was a member of the Holy Trinity Slovak Catholic Church in Hazleton. At the age of 19, Joseph enlisted in the US Marine Corps on 31 January 1936 in Philadelphia, PA as a private and departed for basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina.

By June of 1936, Pvt. Palko was serving with Battery H of the Base Defense Artillery in San Diego, California and was later transferred to Battery F of the Second Marine Antiaircraft Battalion. In December of 1938, Pvt. Palko was transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as an aerologist. He was promoted to private first class in March of 1939 and later that year to corporal. By March of 1940 he was still serving as an aerologist at Guantanamo Bay and had been promoted to sergeant. In July of 1940, Sgt. Palko joined the First Marine Air Group in Quantico, Virginia. In October of 1940, Sgt. Palko was transferred to the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida to attend flight school. He was about to become a “flying sergeant.”

In July of 1941, Technical Sergeant Palko was assigned to the newly formed Marine Fighting Squadron VMF-121 in New Berne, North Carolina as a naval aviation pilot (NAP) and armorer and began flying the Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter. After additional months of training in the US, Palko departed with VMF-121 for the Solomon Islands on 1 September 1942. The month before, on 7 August 1942, the US Marines had invaded Guadalcanal and secured the partially constructed Japanese airfield there for Allied use, renaming it Henderson Field.

Now a master technical sergeant, Palko arrived on Guadalcanal on 6 October 1942. He was now officially part of the “Cactus Air Force,” the small group of Navy, Marine, and Army Air Forces pilots defending Guadalcanal (code name "Cactus"). Palko’s nickname was “Hunky,” not because of his movie star good looks, but because he “was proud of his ‘Hunky’ ancestry” according to friend and VMF-121 executive officer Joe Foss (Foss, 1943). Hunky was then a derogatory term for Eastern European immigrants.

On 10 October, the squadron, including Palko, flew its first combat mission flying F4Fs to escort SBD Dauntless dive bombers targeting Japanese surface vessels in the Slot.

On 14 October, VMF-121 defended Henderson field against a flight of Japanese Betty bombers and Palko shot down one of the Bettys, scoring his first aerial victory (Doll, 1996).

On 22 October, Palko was credited with shooting down 1.5 Aichi “Val” dive bombers when a group of five attacked US destroyers (MAG 23 War Diary).

On 7 November, his 26th birthday, Palko shot down one of a group of Zero float planes covering a flotilla of Japanese destroyers (MAG 23 War Diary). He was well on his way to becoming an ace, like his friend and squadron executive officer, Capt. Joe Foss. In fact, Foss was shot down on the mission that day, but was rescued.

Four days later, on 11 November 1942, Palko was one of a group of 10 F4Fs to meet an oncoming flight of 15 Bettys. Lt. Jeff DeBlanc of VMF-112 was flying as Palko’s wingman. After disrupting the Bettys’ bombing run on Henderson Field, Palko, DeBlanc and 2 other Wildcats pursued a damaged bomber toward Tulagi. In the ensuing fight, Palko was shot down and crashed on the beach at Tulagi. Another pilot, Lt. Pederson, was also shot down, but managed to bail out. It’s possible their aircraft had collided. DeBlanc returned to Henderson Field and briefed Joe Foss, who immediately took off in a Grumman J2F Duck amphibious plane to look for Palko and Pederson. Pederson was rescued, but sadly, Palko was later found dead in the cockpit of his plane, the victim of enemy gunfire.

Palko’s death was a tremendous loss for VMF-121, not just for his flying ability but because he was exceptionally well liked by his squadron mates and known for his wonderful sense of humor. In his 1943 book Joe Foss, Flying Marine (as told to Walter Simmons), Foss says that Palko “contributed much humor with his double talk and strange imprecations in some foreign tongue.”

Joseph’s family back in Pennsylvania received a telegram in December 1942 informing them their son had been killed in action. In 1943 the family received their son’s posthumous Purple Heart medal. In August of 1943, a special tribute was paid to Palko at a flag raising ceremony in Stockton outside of Hazleton. In 1944, MTSgt. Palko was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. His citation read:

“For heroism and extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as a pilot serving with the U. S. Marine Corps fighting squadron against enemy Jap forces in the Solomon Islands area from October to November, 1942.

With disregard for his own personal safety, Master Tech. Sgt. Palko with his squadron, fearlessly engaged a formation of enemy aircraft, he himself personally shooting down three enemy planes and assisting in the destruction of a fourth.

Master Tech. Sgt. Palko’s skill, courage, and indomitable fighting spirit was in keeping with the higher traditions of the U. S. Naval Service.”

Joseph was buried on Guadalcanal. In 1949, when all Americans buried overseas were moved to permanent foreign or domestic cemeteries, he was reinterred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii (Punchbowl).

Joe Foss, who went on score 26 aerial victories, receive the Medal of Honor, and serve as governor of South Dakota, never forgot his friend Joe Palko. Fifty years later in his 1992 autobiography, Foss listed the “right stuff fighter pilots I knew and admired” like “Eddie Rickenbacker, Joe Bauer, John Smith, Marion Carl, Bob Galer, Gabby Gabreski, Dick Bong, Dave McCampbell, Chuck Yeager, Jack Purdy, Duke Davis, Joe Palko, Roger Haberman, Tommy McGuire.” This is a very impressive list of aviators. Perhaps if his life had not been cut short in 1942, Joe Palko’s name would also be as well-known today as some of those pilots.

It's an honor for me to share the story of Joe Palko and remember his too-brief life, especially because my parents were from Hazleton, PA and my maternal family shares Joe's "Hunky" coal mining heritage.

Story by Donna Esposito

https://www.donnaesposito.com

References:

DeBlanc, Jeff (1991) “A Life for a Sack of Rice” in Top Guns by Joe Foss and Matthew Brennan

Doll, Tom (1996) Marine Fighting Squadron One-Twenty-One (VMF-121)

Foss, Joe as told to Walter Simmons (1943) Joe Foss, Flying Marine: The Story of his Flying Circus

Foss, Joe with Donna Wild Foss (1992) A Proud American: The Autobiography of Joe Foss

Lloyd Fuller Diary, November 15-16, 1942. From the Lloyd D. Fuller Collection (COLL/4932), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections

Find-A-Grave for Joseph J. Palko

Ancestry.com. Honolulu, Hawaii, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl), 1941-2011

Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, World War II Veteran Compensation Application Files, 1950-1966

Ancestry.com. U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1798-1958

Ancestry.com. U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962

Ancestry.com. U.S., Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945

The Standard-Sentinel and The Plain Speaker (Hazleton, PA) via Newspapers.com

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Joseph John Palko (1916-1942)