10/27 ?

Grigas, Joseph

Of all of the research things I've done, I thought this was the cutest one (I'm a huge fan of cute things).

So Joseph Grigas was born in Worchester Massachusetts on Feb 15, 1915 and was of Lithuanian descent. Being the rebel he was (I'm assuming this), he left home twice to go off and fight in wars. In the first instance he left for 3 1/2 years to fight with the US Army in Panama and the 2nd was when he left with 15 others from Worchester to fight in Spain for the Republican cause.

Now this is where I'm surprised. The fact that 15 people from Worchester all went together is incredulous because you have to remember that only 3000 approximately people from America went and 15 of them were from this SAME city? It's just surprising.

He was then captured in Spain on April 5th and brought to San Pedro, which is interesting because I've researched several people who were captured together and brought to San Pedro. In 1939, he was allowed to return.

After this (as we have some info to this), we find out from different people that Joe spoke 3 languages fluently (one including German) and he was very courages. Afterwards he enlisted with the Canadian Refgiment for WWII because (The US wasn't in the war hahah). and through this he wont the Distinguished Conduct Medal later on for capturing coastal artillery batteries. (A highly prestious award). However, because he was dead, he could not accept it. By the way he died in 2005 in Canada. This is odd once again because it strikes me that he seemed to have spent more time in other countries rather than his home one which may account for why he was nicknamed International joe during his stay in the International Brigades.

Later on a man by the name of Bob Steck went looking for him but he couldn't find Joe due to privacy laws in the Social Security thing and so he left his name with other people who knew Joe. Now while Steck was on vacation in Puerto Rico, he got a letter from his neighbor back in Conn saying that an old little man came by traveling by 2 days on bus and walking looking for him. This was Joe. How cute is that! Unfortunately he could not be found because he didn't leave a msg behind.

Overall, I feel that this guy is a great example of some of the courageous men of the war. I would havel oved to meet his guy.