Public Is Asked To Line Main Street To Welcome Joe Home

Joseph Maule Funeral Procession

Joseph will be departing Brockhaus-Howser-Fillmer Funeral Home in Norfolk, Nebraska at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, June 20, 2019.

He will process north on Highway 81 to Highway 84 to Bloomfield City Cemetery, Bloomfield, Nebraska, with approximately 50 to 100 Legion Riders paying tribute to him. The public is invited to line Main Street and welcome Joseph home at approximately 12:15 p.m.

Joseph will be escorted by Bloomfield Fire Department and will have funeral blocks by Nebraska State Patrol and County Sheriff Departments.

Graveside services for USN Seaman First Class Joseph Maule will be held at 1:00 p.m. Thursday June 20, 2019, at Bloomfield Cemetery in Bloomfield, Nebraska.

Military Honors will be provided by the United States Navy Funeral Honors Detail, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4996, American Legion Post 249, and American Legion Riders.

Brockhaus Funeral Home in Bloomfield, Nebraska is in charge pf arrangements.

Joe died on December 7, 1941, while serving his country at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Joseph Keith Maule was born in Bloomfield, Nebraska on March 20, 1923, to Anton and Ellen Maule (deceased). He had five siblings who are all deceased: Donald (Eva), Vlastimil (Ramona), Antoinette (Willard) Drobney, Bonnie (Foam) Ellis and Elizabeth (Cammy) Cull. Uncle Joe is survived by his many nieces, nephews, great-nieces, great-nephews and even his great-great-nieces and great-great-nephews.

Joe enlisted in the Navy in Omaha on January 6, 1941, at age 17, and reported to duty aboard the USS Oklahoma on May 8, 1941.

On December 7, 1941, the USS Oklahoma was moored in Berth F-5 in Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor Honolulu, Hawaii when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began. The first torpedo hit just before 8:00 a.m. followed by multiple torpedoes which caused the USS Oklahoma to quickly capsize resulting in the deaths of its 429 Sailors and Marines. Sf1 Maule was reported “missing” and later classified at “killed in action.” The majority of the 2,408 souls lost that day were buried in mass grave sites in Hawaii. The family was told his remains were “unrecoverable.” Joe’s parents and siblings wished their entire lives that Joe could be brought back to rest in Bloomfield. That wish is finally coming true some 78 years later.

Around 2014 the Navy contacted the Maule family and collected DNA from nephew Joseph Keith Maule, niece Jane Mattern, and niece Judy Drobney-Taylor. Joe’s remains were sent to Omaha and finally identified last year.