JOSEPH F. CIOKON, Jr, age 82, passed away on Thursday, March 4, 2021, peacefully and surrounded by family.  He was born January 18, 1939, in Eldon, Missouri, to Joseph F. and Wilma J. (Stoner) Ciokon.  They moved to St. Louis where his sisters, Diane (Flynn) and Judy (Dressendorfer), were born.  Joe enjoyed working on model planes, drawing, watching scary movies and being fascinated with Sci-Fi.   He walked twenty blocks to St. Louis Cathedral to attend grade school as well as perform altar boy duties. His first job was to deliver the daily The Globe Democrat newspaper.

He graduated from Hadley Technical High School and then joined the Navy at age 17 with his parents' written permission.  He entered the Naval Air Reserve in February of 1956 and was hired at McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in the Aeronautical Engineering Department where he produced silk screens for the first line production model of the F-4H "Phantom".

He entered active duty in 1957 and after 30 years of dedicated service he retired as a Master Chief Journalist in 1986.  His military career spans a broad spectrum of experience as an aerial photographer, newspaper editor, and broadcaster.  He held a sixth-degree black belt (Rokudan) in Kodokan Judo and he was the Head Coach for the Navy Judo Teams.  As a USA Judo National Certified Coach, he was the training camp manager and assistant coach for the 1980 and '84 U.S. Olympic Judo teams.

He served in Panama, the Middle East and a combat tour in Vietnam.  As a broadcaster and photographer during the 1968 Vietnamese Tet Offensive and, as one of the early Navy journalists to work with the Armed Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN) in Saigon, he covered the attack at the American Embassy.

Later, in another dangerous theater, he received the Purple Heart medal for wounds suffered during the terrorist attack on the Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, October 23, 1983.

After retirement, Joe went on to a second career as a civilian Navy Public Affairs specialist in San Diego on the staff of COMNAVAIRPAC, where he famously ran the Distinguished Visitor program for many years.  After his retirement from civil service in 2003, Joe continued to contribute as a volunteer Public Affairs Officer for the USS MIDWAY Museum until he suffered a stroke February 2019.

Joe held a B.S in Education, Training, and Development from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.  He served on the Board of Directors for Veterans Village of San Diego (VVSD) and the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center.  He was a Past Master of the Crossroads Lodge #696, and an active member of several local groups including the San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary, Poway Kiwanis, and the San Diego Sheriff's Senior Volunteer Patrol for the Poway area.  He enjoyed golfing, sushi, and helping others, especially our combat veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress.

His leadership, his example and his service will continue to inspire for years to come.  A devoted husband and father, he is survived by his wife, the former Mary Quiroz of Chicago, IL, also a Navy veteran, and their three adult children Joe III, Ramon and Lisa, and many other family members from the U.S and the Philippines.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in his name to any one of Joe's organizations above or these here: BeirutVeterans.org, PurpleHeart.org, BuglesAcrossAmerica.org