Joseph J. Salvestrini was born on April 26, 1918, in Ridgefield, Connecticut. He was the son of Albert and Alegrina Monte Salvestrini. He was married to Brita Salvestrini. He served in the United States Army with the 740th Tank Battalion in World War II. Known as the “Daredevil Tankers”, the 740th was a separate battalion that fought from Utah Beach all the way to the Baltic Sea in support of various divisions of the US war effort.

After completing his military service, he worked for 30 years in New York as a private estate superintendent, where the gardens he maintained earned numerous awards from the New York Garden Society. He later lived in Florida before relocating to Lompoc in 1988. An avid collector of clocks and antiques, he was a member of American Legion Bill Proud Post 211, the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Inc., and formerly served on the board of the Valley of the Flowers Half Century Club. He died on November 20, 2000, and currently, we don't have details about his burial location.

Source of information: www.legacy.com