Joseph Thomas Hughes was born in Philadelphia, PA on 21 July 1895. He enlisted in the Army on 5 May 1917 and served as a Private in Company A, 1st Engineer Combat Battalion, 1st Infantry Division during World War I. He was gassed in the October 1918 fight to take Hill 269 in the Meuse Argonne offensive. After the war he served in the Office of the Judge Advocate, Base Section. He was honorably discharged with the rank of Sergeant on 1 October 1919. Joseph stayed in France and died of lung disease in the American Hospital in Neuilly in 1933 at the age of 37 on 3 January 1933. His remains are interred in the American Legion Mausoleum just west of Paris.