Posted by Howard Eric Watkins on May 14, 2011:

We were in class in Thayer Hall my firstie year when I heard Joe had been killed. He was such a good man; we were all despondent. He was my squad leader in Beast and later in C4. He was a gracious, level-headed, dignified leader; someone we tried to emulate. I remember him often after all this time. I have seen his name on the Vietnam War Memorial and I am grateful that he will be memorialized for all time. I would like his family to know that he is remembered often and fondly and that his example will not be forgotten. We lost so many, so young, and Joe was the best of us. One day at inspection I accidentally picked up my tarbucket instead of Ned Spohn's. Ned had not polished his brass and I got dinged for it. Joe told me to fix my brass and report to his room across the hall. When Ned and I got back to our rooms, we realized the mistake, had a good laugh, and then waited a decent amount of time before I would report with my own, well polished tarbucket. The time came to leave, I grabbed Ned's tarbucket again, tucked it under my arm, and reported to Mr. Silva "As Ordered, Sir!" Joe was stunned that my brass was still awful. I could not see it of course. He asked me if I had polished the brass and if that was the best I could do. I said I had and it was. He calmly had me unscrew the brass insignia, at which time I was stunned to realize I had erred twice, and then Joe demonstrated to me how to polish brass. He must have thought he was dealing with a wedge, the simplest of all tools, but he focused on helping me get it right. Incidentally, Ned immediately realized I had made the switch twice but I was gone and he could not help. If he had reported to Joe's room with my helmet, he would have looked incompetent and I would have looked like an idiot, which of course we were. Ned may have even felt a little bad about not cleaning his gear. Joe took care of us. I expect that he had grown up like that and that he continued to take care of his soldiers as an officer. I am very proud to be from the company and academy as Joe Silva.

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