Last Known Activity:
Lieutenant Joseph D. DiMartino, USN (Ret.)
"Plank Owner' SEAL Team Two
NCDUs June 1944 UDT-4 1945-1947.
Chief Boatswains Mate.
Commissioned Ensign June 1960.
UDT-21 Seal Team 2 1962 (C.O. 1966).
Lieutenant 1964, retired as Lt 1973.
Died 14 August, 2007.
Buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, California.
"If you want to know what it was like on D-Day, watch 'Saving Private Ryan'.", Joseph D. Dimartino said as he was reminiscing the harrowing days on Omaha Beach that marked the beginning of a monumental career spanning three decades. Joe was only 17, still in boot camp in March, 1944, when he became one of 100 volunteers to learn about demolition for the projected invasion of Europe. He experienced combat again later but never in the same way as that morning on that beach. Whenever asked 'What Class were you in?' and 'How was your Hell Week?' Joe would answer that "my Hell Week was June 6, 1944".
During 1946/47 Joe was at Team 4 and deployed to Antarctica and the South Pole as part of Operation High Jump with Admiral Richard E. Byrd's exploration group aboard the flagship, Mt. Olympus. "We captured six of the Emperor Penguins to take to the Zoo at Washington, D.C." During passage on the Potomac, two of the Penguins got their cages open and jumped overboard. The Coast guard was notified immediately. Their report was that the Penguins were too fast for the Coast Guard and were headed south! "Never to be seen again," Joe said.
The Teams began training with scuba gear in 1946 and that became part of his job for the next ten to 15 years was in training Team members with scuba gear, conducting underwater swimming, underwater obstacle clearance and underwater reconnaissance. After the Korean War under Captain [Norm] Olson and some other officers, Joe was with a group of enlisted men that became the first UDT "stick," to go to Jump School together. Joe was now a qualified frogman with the added qualifications of diving with the aqualung and stepping out of planes with a parachute.
Joe DiMartino married Ruth Miller in July 1948, his "Navy Wife" for the next 28 years. They had a son, Jim, and a daughter, Dee.
Joe applied for promotion as a limited duty officer, a privilege offered to CPOs (he was rated as Chief Boatswain's Mate). In June 1960 he received his commission as an Ensign at Newport, RI. In June 1964, he became a full Lieutenant - a rating he kept until his retirement in 1973.
Joe went to Viet-Nam in June 1967, for a year-long tour as a member of the U.S. Naval Advisory Group. Among their mission was support of the South Vietnamese UDT/SEALs in training and in an advisory capacity. During his many years of service Joe's awards include the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star with Combat "V."
After his retirement, Joe joined NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) in 1976 as Boatswain on the ship, Mt. Mitchell. After the first Gulf War, their assignment sent them to the Persian Gulf to study the problem posed by oil spills from Kuwait. For five months, scientists from all over the Middle East, including Iran, joined them aboard ship, wondering how to fix the problem. Travel remained in his blood, and just before Christmas, 2002, Joe, along with Joan Bruyere, his companion of 20 years, went to Lapland where he got his Reindeer Driver's License. They were invited to attend the 50th Anniversary of D-Day by the mayor of the town of St. Laurent but Joe was not able to attend the official ceremony as Joan insisted they return to Paris that morning.
Joe attended a BUD/S graduation and handed out diplomas to Class 249 on June 25, 2004 a highlight for him as his health declined. We will all miss Joe and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and all those that he touched.
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