Seaman First Class Radioman Joseph Manna Park (Staten Island)
Present name:None
Location:Bounded by Forest Avenue, Meeker Avenue, and Goethals Road North.
Honoree: Manna was one of the first, if not the first, Navy man from Mariners Harbor to die in World War II. He enlisted in 1941, shortly after graduating from Port Richmond HS, and was assigned to the destroyer USS Duncan. On October 11, 1942, while off the Solomon slands, the Duncan encountered a Japanese force of heavy cruisers and destroyers. It sank at least three Japanese crusiers and four destroyers before taking heavy Japanese shelling. Manna remaied at his post on the bridge, radioing for help, until his station was destroyed by a Japanese shell. He was 18 years old.
LL:1992/81