Author's Note:  Pvt. Cervo's story could not have been completed without the contributions of MariAgnes (Parente) Malkonian, niece of Pvt Joseph Cervo.  His story is dedicated to her with graditude. 

Joseph “Joey” Cervo was born April 3, 1925, in Rome, Oneida County, New York, to John and Agnes (Ekl) Cervo, the oldest of four children. His siblings were Carmen (1927-2003), Dorothy Parente (1929-2019), and Marian Kelley (1932-2011). According to the 1940 U.S. Census, his dad, John, worked at the General Cable Mill as a general laborer and his mom, Agnes was a housewife. John and Agnes were both born in Pennsylvania.  John's parents were from Italy.  Agnes' parents were from Bohemia and the couple moved to Rome in 1924. John served in the U.S. Army in WWI.

Joey attended Columbus School and the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. He was a member of Boy Scout Troop 7 and passed fire-building tests on a hike to Camp Dyett in 1937. Personal accounts of him, passed down from his mother to his niece are captured in her written tributes to him. “ He was tall, handsome with dark curly hair, funny and quite popular by all accounts. A real 'regular Joe.' He wasn't much of an athlete, but Joe had a passion, and his passion was flying. He spent all of his spare time at Marcy Airport, taking flying lessons, with dreams of someday becoming a pilot. ”

He registered for the draft on April 5, 1943, in Rome, New York. Joey was 5’10”, weighed 162 pounds, and had brown hair and brown eyes. The Cervos lived at 713 West Liberty Street in Rome, New York. Joey was 18 years old, a student, and worked at the Rome Iron Mills.

Joey graduated from the Rome Trade School in June 1943. He was drafted into the U.S. Army at age 18, on May 27, 1943, in Utica, New York, so he was not present for the graduation ceremony.

Joey waived a two-week furlough granted at entrance into the service and went immediately to an Army reception center. He received his basic training at Ft. Benning, Georgia. His eyesight kept him from fulfilling his dream of becoming a pilot. To serve his country and still be “in the air,” he opted to become a paratrooper. In March 1944, it was reported that Pvt. Cervo earned the right to wear the “world famous wings and boots” of the U.S. Army paratrooper. He had successfully made his fifth and qualifying jump, which was a night tactical leap. He also received training at Camp Hale, Colorado, before a 15-day furlough at home with his parents and siblings in May, 1944.

Pvt. Cervo went overseas in May 1944. The July 6, 1944, Rome, NY, Daily Sentinel, reported his parents had received word that Joey had arrived safely somewhere in England. Pvt. Cervo served as a paratrooper assigned to Company C, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. Easy Company, “the Band of Brothers,” made the 506th PIR famous.

In September 1944, Pvt. Cervo was a passenger on the C-47A Skytrain Troop Transport, “Clay Pigeon,” on a paratroop drop mission to Eindhoven, The Netherlands, during Operation Market Garden. “Clay Pigeon” carried 18 paratroopers of the 101st Airborne. The plane was hit by enemy flak and caught on fire before reaching their drop zone. “Clay Pigeon” crash-landed six miles southeast of the Eindhoven Airfield near Bladel, also in The Netherlands, killing six of the paratroopers. Joey had jumped from the plane but was hit by enemy gunfire. Pvt. Cervo was taken as a prisoner of war following the crash, and died the next day, September 18, 1944, in a German military hospital in Breda due to the injuries he had sustained in the crash.

USAAF SSgt Joseph Curreri, Lt Joseph Andrews, 1st Lt Guido Brassesco, and crew of “Clay Pigeon” along with members of the Dutch resistance near Bladel, the Netherlands, after their C-47 aircraft was shot down, September 17, 1944.

The Cervo family was notified in October 1944 that Joey was missing in action. Six weeks later, they were notified he died of his wounds on September 18, 1944, the 54th citizen of Rome, NY, to give his life in WWII. The Cervo family continued to believe that he was still a prisoner of war of the Germans. January 30, 1945, Joey’s parents received word from the War Department that Joey had died and was buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, The Netherlands. In June 1946, Mr. Cervo still had hopes that his son was alive in Europe. The cross in the Margraten Cemetery had no serial number, and a friend of Joey’s saw a cross similarly marked in another cemetery in Europe. However, Pfc. Keith Peckins wrote his father, B.B. Peckins, also of Rome, NY, that Margraten was the cemetery in which Joseph Cervo was buried.

In December, 1948, the bodies of three WWII dead of Rome, NY, Pvt. Anthony Romano, 2Lt. Clarence Swanson, and Pvt. Joseph Cervo, were returned home aboard the U.S. Army transport Barney Kirschbaum. The body of Pvt. Joseph Cervo arrived in Rome, NY, on January 11, 1949, and was met by representatives of various organizations of the city. Interment with full military honors was made in the Rome Cemetery on January 13, 1949, after the body laid in state in his parents’ home.

Pvt. Joseph Cervo was awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star with Two Oak Leaf Clusters (for heroism, special achievement, and meritorious performance of duty), and the Rome Medal of Honor.

As told first hand to Pvt Cervo’s niece by her mother & Joe’s sister, Dorothy:  Joey’s last contact with his family came while on leave in London presumably after his actions on D-Day. While on leave in London, Joey recorded an ‘audio message’ LP record for his mother. This audio record would later became a lifeline for Agnes connecting her to his sweet voice- and last tangible evidence of a dear son taken far too soon. Agnes listened to this precious recording every Sunday for the next 55 years until her death on September 14, 1999 at the age of 93. It was during his last phone call home, Joe excitedly described the sights and sounds of Piccadilly to his sister Dorothy-and vowed they would visit there together after the War was over. But this was a promise Joe would never keep.

For many years, the Cervo family honored the memory of Joseph Cervo through “In Memoriams” placed in the Rome, NY, Daily Sentinel. More recently, beginning in 2014, now deceased Robert Haley of the Greater Rome Utica Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (GRUCMOAA), chose to honor Pvt Cervo for many years during the Rome Cemetery’s annual Wreaths Across America ceremony~ a tradition the Family of Pvt Cervo proudly continues today!

The family of Pvt Cervo donated their Uncle’s Military decorations and mementos to war historian researcher Kees vd Loo and Bladels’ Museum De Bewogen Jaren, where they are on display for posterity.  *Footnote to the Clay Pigeon Memorial Wall: In September 2022,  a storm passed thru the area leaving the display in ruins & has since been removed. 

Rome, NY, Daily Sentinel, September 16, 1961, page 3

In 2019, Dutch historian Kees Van Der Loo identified Pvt. Joseph Cervo as a crew member aboard the ill-fated Troop Carrier “Clay Pigeon.” The remaining wreckage is now on display at the Bladel War Museum in the Netherlands.

This Memorial wall in Bladel, The Netherlands, was erected in 1946, and dedicated to the 15 victims of two American C-47 transport carriers, “Clay Pigeon” and “Piccadilly Filly,” and to the 20 civilians who died when the planes crashed near the farm of the Spliethof family.

In May 2020, the American Ambassador to the Netherlands, Cornelis Piet "Pete" Hoekstra, attended the memorial event and wreath laying for the “Clay Pigeon” Memorial and two newly identified crewmembers, Pvt. Joseph Cervo and John Burke.

Sources:

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49604945/joseph-cervo), memorial page for Pvt Joseph “Joey” Cervo (3 Apr 1925–18 Sep 1944), Find a Grave Memorial ID 49604945, citing Rome Cemetery, Rome, Oneida County, New York, USA; Maintained by D C (contributor 47078229).

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/48569714/josephine_montana

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58569533/guiseppe_cervo

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19801485/diorata_b_cervo

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49604805/john_cervo

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/201208318/dorothy_jean_parente

https://www.mcveighfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Dorothy-Cervo-Parente/#!/Obituary

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/184983920/marian-ruth-kelley

American War Memorials Overseas: https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/people_details.php?PeopleID=26506

American War Memorials Overseas: https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/monument_details.php?SiteID=1590&MemID=2096

HonorStates.org: https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=396275

The 101st Airborne WWII: https://www.ww2-airborne.us/units/506/506_trp.html

Traces of War: https://www.tracesofwar.com/units/60290/Company-C-1st-Battalion-506th-Parachute-Infantry-Regiment-101st-Airborne-Division-Screaming-Eagles-US-Army.htm

Traces of War: https://www.tracesofwar.com/sights/13414/War-Memorial-Bladel.htm

European Center of Military History: https://eucmh.com/2023/02/16/506-pir-operations-in-holland-september-17-to-october-9-1944/

Liberation Route Europe: https://www.liberationroute.com/pois/542/the-bombing-of-september-19-1944

World War II Database: https://m.ww2db.com/photo.php?list=sp&sp=city__Bladel

Ships Nostalgia: https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/media/ss-barney-kirschbaum.223485/

Fold3: https://www.fold3.com/record/704908590/cervo-joseph-us-wwii-hospital-admission-card-files-1942-1954

Fold3: https://www.fold3.com/record/86569812/joseph-cervo-us-wwii-army-enlistment-records-1938-1946

Fold3: https://www.fold3.com/image/233805155/death-of-american-pow-joseph-cervo-page-1-eu-wwii-german-documents-among-war-crimes-records-1945?terms=joseph,cervo

Fold3: https://www.fold3.com/image/233805156/death-of-american-pow-joseph-cervo-page-2-eu-wwii-german-documents-among-war-crimes-records-1945?terms=joseph,cervo

Fold3: https://www.fold3.com/image/317690921/cervo-joseph-page-1-us-headstone-applications-1925-1963

Fold3: https://www.fold3.com/image/672568183?terms=joseph,cervo

Endnotes:

End notes: This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars Project, a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 421,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3 web sites. Can you help write these stories? These stories will be accessible via smartphone app at any war memorial or cemetery. If you noticed anything erroneous in this profile or have additional information to contribute to it, please contact hillerson@beyondbb.com.           

Date: 4/30/2024

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