Tribute

Francis "Joe" Hoban served as a combat engineer with the 3rd Engineer Battalion, 3rd Marine Division during the South Pacific theater of operations of WWII. He was part of a Marine Raider training company and took part in training exercises in the Solomon Islands in preparation for Guam and Iwo Jima. Joe took part in combat operations at Guam and landed on Iwo Jima on the third day of fighting.

Joe conducted demolitions of Japanese tunnel systems and served alongside Marines who were wounded and killed in action. Leslie Morgan was shot in the stomach and Raymond Levonski was killed after sustaining various gunshot wounds to the head, arms and chest.

Joe also took part of the Bougainville campaign, specifically Piva, the crossroads of the supply route on the island where Marines took heavy enemy contact in late November, particularly on Thanksgiving Day. Joe died in 2000. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery.