Joseph "Joe" LaPointe

Joseph Guy LaPointe III is the son of posthumous Medal of Honor recipient, Joseph Guy LaPoint, Jr. Joe was just five months old when his father, an Army medic, was killed in action during the Vietnam War. He remained unaware of his father’s service, until his early teens when his Dayton, OH, community asked him to take part in commemorative Memorial Day services. To better understand his father’s sacrifice, Joe enlisted in the Army in 1986 and served as a missileer. In doing so, Joe learned the depth of camaraderie that led his father to volunteer for the mission that would ultimately end his life.