Joseph Bucci’s Guadalcanal diary

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, Amsterdam Recorder

  Joseph A. Bucci fought valiantly on Guadalcnal in World War II and then furthered the war effort as a public speaker back home. Bucci was the son of Charles and Mary Bucci who lived at 12 Lark Street in Amsterdam’s East End.  Charles Bucci had served in World War I.  Joseph Bucci’s brother Anthony fought with the Army Air Corps in World War II.

Joseph Bucci was a graduate of St. Mary’s Institute in Amsterdam and the University of Notre Dame.  He was among the first local men to enlist in the Marines in January, 1942 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December.  He had been working as a life insurance agent for John Hancock.  He also was a candy salesman.

By October Bucci was among those fighting the Japanese in a long campaign on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific. Bucci and six others were pinned down by Japanese artillery in the Battle of Matiniku River.  The small band had missed orders to move from their foxholes to another position.

Through one long night and the next day the seven endured the artillery barrage and Japanese attacks. The seven Marines were credited with killing 175 to 200 enemy soldiers.Then Bucci and his comrades came under American artillery fire in a Marine counterattack. Ultimately the seven Marines were reunited with their unit.

By November Bucci was wounded by three pieces of shrapnel.  He contracted malaria and was shipped to a hospital in San Diego, California. It was there he learned he was to receive the Silver Star for his actions on Guadalcanal.  He was promoted to Sergeant.

He was home on leave in July 1943 when the Recorder printed an account of Bucci’s actions on Guadalcanal written by Marine private Eddie Lyon, who had interviewed Bucci at the San Diego hospital.  Bucci and his parents went to the Recorder offices to read the story and have their picture taken.

In December 1943, Bucci was still at home, assigned to the Scotia Naval Depot on Route 5, today an industrial park. He had applied for Officer Candidate School. That month Knights of Columbus Council 209 in Amsterdam honored Bucci at a dinner and presented him with a special ring. Bucci was honored or spoke at numerous gatherings while home on leave. “When I was in the South Pacific, I dreamed of getting home,” Bucci told the Knights of Columbus, according to a newspaper account.   “Just at the present I wish I were down there again.”

He added, “It is my fond wish and hope that this international mess will soon be over and that all of us can come back to the good old American way of life. However, I expect to be shoving off again soon and in whatever part of the world I am I will have this ring with me, a reminder of your thoughtfulness and I will be thoughtful for you.”

Bucci became a second lieutenant in October 1944. 

He attended Albany Law School after the war and in 1948 became head of the new Montgomery County Probation Department.

A 1951 clipping states that he was promoted to captain in the Marine Corps Reserve by President Truman. He and Louanne Wilkes of Albany married in 1953 and moved to California where Bucci worked in the Ventura County Probation Department.

In their later years Bucci and his wife moved to Virginia to be near one of their two sons. Bucci died in 2010 at age 96 at Lovingston Health Care Center in Arrington, Virginia. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Bob Cudmore is a freelance writer. 

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