Joseph William Will was born in Hugo, Colorado, on May 4, 1919. His mother, Nellie Clifford Will, was a homemaker, and his father, James E. Will, a farmer.

Joseph graduated in 1937 from Hugo Union High School. The town had a population of about 850.

He also served in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Depression-era federal jobs program. The CCC, as it was known, employed single men 18 to 25 to plant trees, build roads and trails and make other improvements to public land, forests and parks. The men lived at camps across the country and were provided a bed and three meals a day. Of their $30 monthly pay, $25 was sent to their families. He served in Co. 3825 at Hugo.

When he enlisted in the Navy on Feb. 1, 1941, he said he’d worked two years as a laborer on the Union Pacific Railroad.

Mr. Will was a seaman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6612 in Hugo was named in his honor.

Sources: The Denver Catholic Register; the denverchannel.com; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; World War II draft registration card. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.