Joseph E. Halpin Jr.

Rank: Electrician’s Mate Third Class, U.S. Navy

Serial Number: 02439472

Unit: USS Corvina (SS-226)

Entered service from: New Jersey

Died: November 16, 1943

Status: Missing in Action or Buried at Sea

Memorial: Tablets of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii

Awards: Purple Heart

Electrician’s Mate Third Class Joseph Edward Halpin Jr. was born in New Jersey around 1924. He was the son of Joseph and Ruth Halpin. His father worked as a clerk in the Camden County Clerk’s office at the Camden County Courthouse in Camden. By 1926 the Halpins had moved to Pennsauken. The 1930 Census has the family living in a rented home at 1742 Merchantville Avenue. The 1940 Census shows the family — which by then included younger sisters Mary and Ruth — at 1708 Hollingshead Avenue in Pennsauken. They later moved to 1918 West River Drive in Pennsauken.

After joining the United States Navy on July 9, 1941, Joseph E. Halpin qualified for submarine duty. After being promoted to Seaman Second Class, he was assigned to USS Haddock (SS-231), a new Gato-class submarine, and was a member of Haddock’s crew when she was commissioned on March 14, 1942. He sailed with Haddock on four war patrols in 1942 and 1943, conducting operations in the Bonin Islands, East China Sea, Yellow Sea, and Pacific waters south of Japan.

Having been promoted to Electrician’s Mate Third Class, Joseph E. Halpin Jr. returned to the United States and was assigned to USS Corvina (SS-226), another new Gato-class submarine. He was aboard when Corvina was commissioned at New London, Connecticut, on August 6, 1943. He was aboard when Corvina made her first, and sadly, her last war patrol. After leaving Pearl Harbor on November 4, 1943, Corvina was sighted on the surface by a Japanese submarine on November 16, 1943, and was herself torpedoed and sunk, going down with all hands.

After the war, when new homes were being built in Pennsauken, Halpin Avenue was named in his memory. His family stayed in Pennsauken; his mother Ruth S. Halpin passed away in 1994 at the age of 92.

The Corvina was a Gato-class submarine. Keel laid by the Electric Boat Company, Groton, CT, September 21, 1942; launched May 9, 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Ralph W. Christie; commissioned August 6, 1943, under the command of Commander Roderick S. Rooney.

Venturing into enemy waters for her first patrol, USS Corvina departed Pearl Harbor on November 4, 1943, bound for an area south of Truk, to attack enemy naval forces during American surface operations in the Gilbert Islands. She was ordered to patrol as close to Truk as enemy antisubmarine measures would permit, and on December 14 was to pass to command of Commander Task Force Seventy-Two and proceed to an eastern Australian port for refit.

When major surface force operations in the Gilberts were finished, Corvina was directed by dispatch on November 30 to pass to command of Commander Task Force Seventy-Two on December 2, 1943. The message was repeated three times on each of two successive nights, and acknowledgment was directed, but none was received. She was directed to proceed to Tulagi and rendezvous with a surface escort, but she did not appear. Since she had not been heard from since her departure from Johnston Island on November 6, Corvina was reported as presumed lost on December 23, 1943.

Enemy records indicate that Corvina met her doom on November 16, 1943, by enemy action. A Japanese submarine reported having sighted a surfaced submarine and torpedoed her. Three torpedoes were fired and two were reported to have hit, causing a “great explosion.” All 78 men aboard were lost.