Joseph Eugene McCarthy PFC USMCR Drowned at Parris Island, SC

Joseph Eugene McCarthy was born and baptized on 9 Nov 1908 at Victoriaville, PQ to Joseph Ludger McCarthy & Flora Emma Marie Tremblay. Joseph was the 4th child of 5 in the family. The family immigrated to the United States about 1923. In the 1930 census his father was a carpenter and Joseph was a Presser at a Dry Cleaning company and they were living at 78 Cedar street in Burlington..

In the 1940 census Joseph was living at 50 Pomeroy with his wife Gladys. He was age 31 and Gladys was 29. He was still a Presser at a Dry Cleaning Co. Joseph married Gladys Elizabeth Maher on 30 Oct 1933 at the Catholic Cathedral on 84 Cherry Street.

On his Draft Card, registered on 16 Oct 1940, he was 5 ft 3 tall, and weighed 146 pounds, had a light complexion, brown eyes and hair and was 31years old, living at 50 Pomeroy Street in Burlington. His employer was the Quartermaster Dept, at Fort Ethan Allen in Colchester, VT.

Joseph Enlisted in the US Marine Corps on 15 Mar 1944. Burlington Free Press 30 May 1944: Private Joseph E. McCarthy USMCR is at his home on leave at 50 Pomeroy Street.

Burlington Free Press 20 Sep 1944: **PFC McCarthy USMCR, Drowned at Parris Island. Wife had expected him home here this week on a furlough. **After being stationed at Parris Island for 6 months, he was somehow drowned. He was a member of St Joseph parish.

From the Headstone card we see that Joseph Enlisted in the US Marine Corps on 15 Mar 1944; his serial No. was 804, 189 and they mentioned the Water Trans. Sec. Was this where he drowned on 16 Sep 1944 at Parris Island, SC as a PFC.

After a memorial Mass at St Joseph he was buried in the New Mount Calvary cemetery in the P West 25 plot and his wife was also interred with him in 1974.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/115914189

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.