Faces Bio

Joseph Lonnie Hicks was born on March 30, 1947. His home of record is Yardville, NJ. He had three siblings. Joseph attended Hamilton West High School. Joseph loved music. He was kind and gentle and had a wonderful singing voice. In high school, many of his friends and other students would gather around him while he sang to us in the schoolyard. His father owned a gas station and Joe worked with his Dad there before he entered the Marines and sometimes even when he was home on leave.

Joseph enlisted in the US Marine Corps and attained the rank of Lance Corporal (LCPL). Joseph spent a year at Camp LeJeune, SC, before getting his orders for Vietnam. He served with F Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division.

Joseph married his high school sweetheart, Susan Majeski. The couple had four days together before Joseph left for his assignment.

Hicks was killed in action on July 4, 1967, in a mortar attack near An Hoa. He is buried in Franklin Memorial Park.

He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart with Gold Star, the Vietnamese Service Medal, the Vietnamese Campaign Medal and the Vietnam Service Medal.

His name appears on the Veterans' Memorial at Hamilton High School West in Hamilton, NJ, along with the six other graduates from that school that were killed in Vietnam.

Sources: Susan Guthrie (widow), newspaper clippings and NJVVMF.