MEMORIAL ARTICLE Published Assembly Sep '92 Joseph George Rioux   No. 15995  Class of 1946 Died 22 May 1972 in Providence, Rhode Island, aged 47 years. Interment: Island Pond Cemetery, Harwich, Massachusetts.

Joseph George (Joe) Rioux was born 30 November 1924 at Attleboro, Massachusetts. Growing up, he loved to walk on the beaches of Cape Cod. He loved the ocean and, throughout his life, was to enjoy the feeling of oneness with the world that the ocean brought him. Joe graduated from Attleboro High School in 1942 and entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After a short time there, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and spent three months on active duty before receiving his coveted appointment to West Point. He joined the Class of 1946 on the banks of the Hudson in July 1943.

As noted in Joe's Howitzer write-up, life as a plebe came as a total and absolute shock. With aplomb, perseverance and a great sense of humor, however, he managed to survive and learn to cope with the system. Academics posed a minor problem to him, but he managed with no great difficulty. Once adapted to the system, Joe had no problems with either the Tactical Department or with the upperclassmen, due mainly to his sincerity, conscientiousness and good humor. His good friends, classmates and fellow infantrymen, Bob Coller, Sewall Johnson and Jack Cairns, remembered: "He had an exceptionally good and quite unique sense of humor. His comedic bent was most effectively shown in the form of his one-man skits-always good, clean humor with a keen sense of good-natured satire. His wry and ironic lampooning of The System (both at West Point and later in the Infantry) was always appreciated and applauded. He was 6'2", wiry, rangy and angular with a unique gait and stride. When he would 'bring down the house,' he would chuckle, too, and then don a distinctive elfin grin. Joe loved life and his fellow classmates and, to a man, they loved him. He was a kind and thoughtful gentleman who liked to have a fun time and share it with others." Bob Coller noted how he likes to remember Joe: "One nice spring evening yearling year, Joe Rioux was cadet in charge of quarters. He was walking along the stoops of barracks in the 'lost fifties' rattling his keys. His Joe Rioux stride was carrying him along: he would kick out each leg and foot and put his feet down as though testing for the thickness of ice on a lake. And he was singing, really quite melodiously, as adapted from the famous song:

Graduation saw Joe pin on the bars of a second lieutenant of Infantry. He received basic Infantry schooling at Fort Benning, Georgia, and his Infantry classmates vividly remember one of Joe's skits concerning the Infantry School. With Joe playing all the parts, a reporter is interviewing the colonel, chairman of the Tactical Department at the School. The reporter asked about what new doctrines the School would come up with to cope with tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield. The colonel responded that the School would thoroughly drill into the troops that, when deploying in the field, they would really have to Spread Out!

 From Benning, Joe traveled to Japan, where he served with the 21st Infantry Regiment. His assignments in Japan were varied, from platoon leader to executive officer to company commander. In one instance he was an assistant economics officer in Kagoshima, Japan. In early 1950, Joe returned to the States and served with the 505th Airborne Infantry Regiment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. En route from the West Coast to Fort Bragg, Joe married Dorothy S. Glascock on 19 March 1950 in Corvallis, Oregon. When the Korean War broke out, he returned to the Far East to serve with the 38th Infantry Regiment of the 2d Infantry Division in Korea. Joe arrived in Korea on 17 November 1950, just in time to take part in the Eighth Army's drive north to the Yalu. He was a platoon leader with E Company of the 38th when the Chinese entered the war and forced the UN Forces out of North Korea. After Joe's platoon was decimated by fierce Chinese attacks, he was transferred to F Company. The first night, Joe was hit by fragments from a Chinese rocket. The next day Joe's platoon endured the infamous run through the "Gauntlet" when the 2d Division moved south from Kunu to Sunchon. Joe is mentioned in S.L.A. Marshall's River and the Gauntlet. Later, when the Second Division regrouped south of Wonju, Joe led his platoon into battle during the "Wonju Shoot." As the 38th started to drive north in Operation "Killer," Joe again was wounded and this time evacuated on 21 February 1951. When fit, Joe traveled to Fort Campbell, Kentucky for assignment to the Eleventh Airborne Division. In 1952 he began to have problems with his vision and entered Walter Reed, where he was retired with permanent disability in 1954. Joe suffered from keratoconus, a condition where the cornea was conical instead of spherical.

 Joe returned to Massachusetts. He suffered progressive vision deterioration but was determined to make the best of a bad situation. He enrolled at Bryant College in Providence, Rhode Island, and in 1958 received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting. Notwithstanding his limited vision, Joe graduated fifth in his class. He became a certified public accountant with Neff and Armstrong in Providence. In 1969, Joe's marriage ended in divorce. Though his vision continued to deteriorate, Joe never stopped working. He died of cardiac arrest on 22 May 1972. His survivors included son Joseph; two daughters, Jacqueline and Mary; and his parents; brother, Raymond: and two sisters, Norma and Dennice.

 Joe Rioux was a good man in every sense of the term. His friends and classmates remember that he never had a bad word to say about anyone, He was universally liked and respected. He loved the Army, and having to leave due to his physical problems was a great disappointment to him. Yet he never complained, instead moving forward to do the best he could with his life. He was a loving father. His daughter Jacquie recalled that he gave her a lot of love and that she has many wonderful memories of a very rich childhood. He allowed her to be a child and explore life. She remembered specifically, "Some of my fondest memories of my father are our long, quiet walks on the beaches of Cape Cod. He loved the ocean as much as I do, and I really think he felt as one with the world there. He was taken too soon. I would have liked to have known him not only as a child but as an adult."  His classmates agree that Joe was taken too soon. His vitality, charm and tremendous sense of humor helped make the world a better place. A West Pointer through and through, Joe is sorely missed by all who knew and loved him. His classmates can fondly say. "Well done, Joe; be thou at peace!"

'46 Memorial Article Project and his family
 
 
 
 
 
 

Personal Eulogy