Joseph T. Hamilton

�Snooky� Hamilton�s grandparents remembered him as strong and husky, but quiet and churchgoing. Each year Hamilton planted periwinkles and violets on their windowsill. The son of a 21-year Army veteran, he en-listed in the Army after attending Benjamin Franklin High School, telling friends he preferred to �be killed in the service than on the streets.� The private first class, an assistant gunner, served in Okinawa before being shipped to Vietnam in September 1965 and assigned to Company C of the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade. He was killed on Nov. 8, 1965, north of Saigon, while giving aid to a wounded soldier pinned down by enemy machine-gun fire. Hamilton was awarded the Silver Star posthumously. He was survived by his parents and several brothers and sisters.