By Mary Kleiss

Victor Joseph (Joe) Kleiss, a United States Navy veteran who survived the Pearl Harbor disaster, passed away March 17^th, 2006 in Port Charlotte, Florida.

He was born in Pesotum, Illinois on April 14, 1919 and was a star athlete in high school. He left the family farm to enlist in the Navy on January 6, 1941. He received his basic training at Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois, and specialized training in Long Beach, California aboard the USS Utah. He was then transferred to the USS Dobbin, a destroyer escort at Pearl Harbor in April, 1941.

Joe was aboard the Dobbin, writing a letter home to his mother, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. While at his duty station, Joe recalled shaking his fist at Japanese pilots who flew so low that he could see their faces.

The Dobbin lost two men and his former ship, the USS Utah, was sunk. Joe served aboard the USS Dobbin for three and a half years and then rotated to the USS Dionysis at Philadelphia, PA in 1944 then back out to sea until the end of the war.

Joe, who reached the rank of CPO as a chief shipfitter, fought battles at Pearl Harbor, Milne Bay, New Guinea and Tokyo Bay. He served with American occupation forces in Japan. He was awarded the Good Conduct, American Defense with Foreign Service clasp, Asiatic-Pacific Service Medal, American Theater Service Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.

Following the war, Joe farmed for ten years in Illinois and was a past Post Commander American Legion in Tuscola, Illinois. In 1955 he moved his family to Fort Lauderdale, Florida where he was employed as a Union sheetmetal worker for many years.

Joe was preceded in death by his Australian war bride, Hazel Joyce McCann and infant daughter Theresa.

After his first wife’s death, he married Mary M. Myers in 1977 and moved to Port Charlotte, Florida. In 1979 at age 60, Joe became a father again to a daughter, Grace-Mary Helen Kleiss.

Thank you for taking the time to read about Joe. He never talked much about his years in the Navy or that he was at Pearl Harbor. I found out by looking through old albums his mother kept during the war. Mary Kleiss