JOSEPH W. CASTELLO, LT, USN

Joseph Castello '39

Date of birth: May 28, 1914

Date of death: October 15, 1943

Age: 29

Lucky Bag

From the 1939 Lucky Bag:

JOSEPH WILLIAM CASTELLO

Lawrence, Massachusetts

Joe, Cas, Salty

Here's one sailor you can't disregard. You can cuss him one or break his skull, but he still pops back to battery. And then you can't help feeling sorry you tried to squelch him. (The Executive Department has tried time after time and failed.) In other words, he's a significant personality—-full of TNT and yet the friendliest person you know. A staunch friend of the underdog and fiery debunker of the "big shot"—he's certainly no bloated plutocrat. As for the Navy, he's not exactly in ecstasy in it, but he probably couldn't live at all out of it. You can't call him the soul of modesty; you can't call him the creme of beauty; but you can call him Joe.

Football 4; Lacrosse 4, 3, 2, 1; Soccer 3; Log Staff 4, 3, 2, 1; Masqueraders 4, 3; Press Detail 4, 3, 2, 1

JOSEPH WILLIAM CASTELLO

Lawrence, Massachusetts

Joe, Cas, Salty

Here's one sailor you can't disregard. You can cuss him one or break his skull, but he still pops back to battery. And then you can't help feeling sorry you tried to squelch him. (The Executive Department has tried time after time and failed.) In other words, he's a significant personality—-full of TNT and yet the friendliest person you know. A staunch friend of the underdog and fiery debunker of the "big shot"—he's certainly no bloated plutocrat. As for the Navy, he's not exactly in ecstasy in it, but he probably couldn't live at all out of it. You can't call him the soul of modesty; you can't call him the creme of beauty; but you can call him Joe.

Football 4; Lacrosse 4, 3, 2, 1; Soccer 3; Log Staff 4, 3, 2, 1; Masqueraders 4, 3; Press Detail 4, 3, 2, 1

Loss

From Twenty Three Minutes to Eternity: The Final Voyage of the Escort Carrier USS Liscome Bay By James L. Noles:

On October 16 [1943], Lieutenant Joseph W. Castello, USN, guided in his Wildcat toward the flight deck. The LSO signaled "cut," but Castello's angle was too high. His Wildcat slapped down on the deck but missed catching its tail hook on the arresting cables. Veering to port, Castello brought the squat fighter back down again, only to strike the port stanchions anchoring the no. 2 and no. 3 crash barriers. His port landing gear sheared off, his starboard gear buckled, and the fighter slipped over the final cable. Skidding diagonally to starboard, Castello's Wildcat plunged over the starboard side.
The fighter dropped into the water with a heavy splash. At the time, Beasley was on the bridge performing signaling duties, and he ran over to the starboard side of the superstructure. Looking down, Beasley recognized Castello. He had first seen the lieutenant back on the dock in San Diego a little over a week ago and had, in the meantime, seen him often on the ship's flight deck. In a flash, Beasley remembered Castello kissing his wife and small child good-bye just before boarding Liscome Bay.
Now, however, Castello was struggling frantically to extricate himself from his cockpit. In the end, he simply didn't have enough time. With a rapidity that astonished the men aboard the carrier, the Wildcat sank beneath the waves, taking Castello with it. He had been a relatively experienced aviator, with no previous accidents and over 550 hours of flying under his belt. His death delivered a painful reminder to VC-39 of the dangers of their duties.

Other Information

His wife was listed as next of kin.

Joseph is remembered in the World War II West Coast Memorial in San Francisco, California.

Photographs

From the Lucky Bag

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.