Islanders Who Answered the Call: Joe Eldredge Poet and World War II Veteran

Editor's note: This is the third of a three part series in honor of Islanders who have served.

Joe Eldredge lives in West Tisbury and he is a retired architect, although, as he puts it, “architects never really retire, people keep calling you for things.”

He is a long-time Oxfordian, critic and poet and author of “The Lead Balloon: Limericks on Martha’s Vineyard,” that is available at bookstore. He is also a World War II veteran. He served on a Navy destroyer in the Mediterranean from 1942 – 1945.

M.V. Patch: What was your experience in the war?

Joe Eldredge: My job on the ship was to be in charge of the anti-aircraft gun. We were not in blazing warfare; we mostly just patrolled the water. I know a lot of Army guys who think I’m a hero because I was out on the water, but I felt safer on the water than on land. My father flew planes in World War I, but when you ask him about it the war, he doesn’t really say anything about the war itself, he talks about flying planes and I realized that when I talk about the war, I don’t really talk about war, I talk about sea and ships. I guess the areas in which we grew are what we remember.

M.V. Patch: What was your experience when you came home?

Joe Eldredge: I went back to Indiana and back to architectural school. I worked in a lumberyard drawing plans for houses and then headed back to school on the GI Bill. I grew up in a family that read a lot of books and as I said my father was in World War I so even before I left to go to war myself, I was aware of people’s experience in war, had read books about being in the trenches. When I got home, vets were just learning how to speak out about what happened to them.

M.V. Patch: What is important to you about being a Veteran?

Joe Eldredge: Well, the military has no other way of finding out how good you are at something other than to give you a test, so I realized how important an education is because if I hadn’t been as educated as I was, I may have would up in a very different position than I did. Also, back then, the government was far more grateful then they are now. I’m appalled today because one of the things that happens is that people who get wounded have a much better chance of surviving, but sometimes it’s only their brain that survives. That was not the case back in 1950s ... if you were dead, you were dead.