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Contact Info
Home Town Jersey City, New Jersey
Last Address Brandon, Florida
Date of Passing Jan 21, 2015
Location of Interment Florida National Cemetery (VA) - Bushnell, Florida
Joseph (Joe) Lori, U.S. Army Korean War Veteran and Past Flotilla Commander, US Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla #75 Ruskin, Florida, died Jan. 21, 2015.
Funeral visitation for family and friends will be 6-8 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015, at Southern Funeral Care, 10510 Riverview Drive, Riverview. Graveside services and full military honors will be 2:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 30, 2015, at Florida National Cemetery, Bushnell, Florida, with the U.S. Army and the Veterans of Foreign War officiating.
Joe was born May 15, 1935, in Jersey City, New Jersey. He moved his family to the Tampa Bay area in 1970 from New Jersey and established Certified Auto Electric Inc. of Tampa. After arriving in Tampa, he became very active in the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Joe has done so much and occupied so many positions in the Coast Guard Auxiliary that it is hard to know where to begin. Joe enrolled in the Auxiliary in October 1985 as a member of Flotilla 79, Tampa. He assisted with the formation of Flotilla 74, Brandon, was elected Vice Flotilla Commander and later, Flotilla Commander. With Flotilla 74 firmly on its feet, Joe was asked to take over Flotilla 75, which was struggling at that time. Joe was Commander of Flotilla 75 six times. He was twice elected Division 7 Captain. In addition, he was Operations Officer, PWC (Personal Watercraft) Officer and Chief of Qualification Examinations for District 7. He also held the office of Operations Officer for Division 7. Joe was heavily involved in Operations and contributed extensively to the updates of the Auxiliary Operations Manual. His nickname was “Joe the Book” because when asked a question about Auxiliary procedures or protocol, his response was always, “Read the Book,” meaning the Auxiliary Manuals.
As an Auxiliary Instructor, Joe traveled extensively throughout the U.S., but the highlight of his travels came in 2001, when the U.S. Army asked him to come to Camp Doha, Kuwait for a month to train Special Forces in the use of PWC for support missions. He also went to Puerto Rico to train Coast Guard personnel.
In 2008, the Coast Guard awarded Joe the prestigious Coast Guard Auxiliary Service Medal for “Exceptional Meritorious Achievement and Superior Performance of Duties.” The citation, the highest award given to a civilian, in part reads – “Auxiliarist Joseph J. Lori is cited for outstanding and meritorious service worthy of special recognition from January 1996 thru December 2007 while serving as a member of the Seventh Coast Guard District Auxiliary. During this period, he demonstrated the exceptional vision and initiative to significantly enhance and expand Coast Guard Auxiliary Personal Water Craft (PWC) programs. Since 1996, he has expertly contributed to the development of procedures, policies and qualifications criteria for PWC operators in the Auxiliary. … Auxiliarist Lori’s dedication and devotion to duty is most heartily commended and is in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Auxiliary.”
Joe Lori was the first PWC Qualifications Examiner in District 7, and between May and September 1999, he trained and tested 23 members of the Winter Haven Fire Department and the Polk County Marine Unit. Members of the Sheriff’s Office of Marion County, Indiana traveled to Florida to be trained by him.
While serving as District Staff Officer-Operations in 2000, Auxiliarist Lori found every opportunity to enhance the Auxiliary PWC Program and provided seminars for Qualification Examiners throughout District 7. He responded to the need for qualified PWC operators in Puerto Rico to support OPSAIL 2000 and personally trained and tested 20 PWC operators. Joe arranged a PWC demonstration for the District Commander and the local media.
In 2007, despite serious personal health problems, Auxiliarist Lori maintained his many competencies and certification while completing 198 hours of service, of which 94 were in surface operations.
His loving family survives Joseph: sons Daniel and Anthony of Riverview, Florida; daughter, Dawn, of Gibsonton, Florida; and his wife, Catherine of 50 years. Other survivors include his children from a previous marriage: a son, Joseph of Tracy, California; daughters, Christina Marie of Tampa, and Tammy Susan of Riverview, Florida; a brother, Salvatore Salerno of Red Bank, New Jersey; 16 grandchildren and six great grandchildren. His parents John and Anne of New Jersey and older brother John of New York predecease him.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758517, Topeka, Kansas, 66675 in the memory of Joseph John Lori.
Description The Korean War; 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea. China came to the aid of North Korea, and the Soviet Union gave some assistance.
Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the closing days of World War II. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as a result of an agreement with the United States, and liberated Korea north of the 38th parallel. U.S. forces subsequently moved into the south. By 1948, as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was split into two regions, with separate governments. Both governments claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither side accepted the border as permanent. The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces—supported by the Soviet Union and China—moved into the south on 25 June 1950. On that day, the United Nations Security Council recognized this North Korean act as invasion and called for an immediate ceasefire. On 27 June, the Security Council adopted S/RES/83: Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea and decided the formation and dispatch of the UN Forces in Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing 88% of the UN's military personnel.
After the first two months of the conflict, South Korean forces were on the point of defeat, forced back to the Pusan Perimeter. In September 1950, an amphibious UN counter-offensive was launched at Inchon, and cut off many of the North Korean troops. Those that escaped envelopment and capture were rapidly forced back north all the way to the border with China at the Yalu River, or into the mountainous interior. At this point, in October 1950, Chinese forces crossed the Yalu and entered the war. Chinese intervention triggered a retreat of UN forces which continued until mid-1951.
After these reversals of fortune, which saw Seoul change hands four times, the last two years of conflict became a war of attrition, with the front line close to the 38th parallel. The war in the air, however, was never a stalemate. North Korea was subject to a massive bombing campaign. Jet fighters confronted each other in air-to-air combat for the first time in history, and Soviet pilots covertly flew in defense of their communist allies.
The fighting ended on 27 July 1953, when an armistice was signed. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no peace treaty has been signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war. Periodic clashes, many of which are deadly, have continued to the present.
