PENSACOLA, FL, USA
U.S. Marines
CPL, COMPANY A, 2D BATTALION, 23D INFANTRY, FORT LEWIS, WA
MUQDADIYAH, IRAQ 09/18/2007
Corporal Joseph N. Landry III of Pensacola, Florida was a Pine Forest High School graduate where he spent four years in the Junior ROTC. He graduated in 2002, then took two years off before joining the Army.
Joey came from a long line of family who served their country including his father, Joe Landry; his grandfathers, Joseph Landry, Sr., Alvin Ellis; great grandfather, Paul Ellis; uncles, Charles Ellis, Byron Dalton, James Ellis, Maynard Nighbert, Felix Favalora, Bill Ellis, Jim Sanders, Tom Landry, Stanley Favalora, Leon Landry, Joseph Favalora; cousins, James Nighbert, Cody Ellis and Gary Ellis who died while serving his country.
There was never a doubt that he would serve. He had no fear of war. His only fear was that he wouldn’t become a soldier in the first place. When the Army told him that he had to lose 40 pounds to enlist, he strapped a 50-pound pack on his back and started walking. He’d walk 2 miles to his job at Taco Bell on Mobile Highway carrying the weight. After work, he’d lug the extra weight home. He did that for weeks.
Joseph lost the 40 pounds and became a soldier in October 2004. He was in Junior ROTC all through high school and when he put on that uniform, it just transformed him. He became a different person, a person who showed pride and confidence in what he did. And that’s how he felt about the Army.
After Landry joined the Army, he worried that he might not make it to Iraq. He got tired of the training. He would call home and say, ‘I know we’re ready to go.’ That’s where he wanted to be. He knew about the dangers of war and was ready to sacrifice himself for others if the situation arose. He said he was willing to take a bullet for a husband or a father just so they could come back and be with their families. He’d take the bullet instead of them, that’s just the kind of person he was.
He was also a loving son and brother who would call his family from Iraq to talk about video games with his brother or just clue his parents in to what he was doing.
Joey was preceded in death by his younger sister, Jessica Landry who died when Joey was 6 years old; his grandfather, Joseph N. Landry Sr. who also served his country; great grandmother, Mazzie Ellis whom he admired greatly; a very special uncle, Will Morgan.
He died the soldier he so much wanted to be in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near their unit during combat operations at age 23.
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