Joe was too young for the draft, but old enough to become a multi-battle combat survivor.

Joseph S. Rebeiro was born about 1898 and is believed to have been a Pajaro Valley resident for most of his life. He was one of the four children of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Rebeiro Sr. who lived in or near Watsonville, California. Joseph attended local schools and Watsonville High School. After he left school, he was employed as a clerk in the Williams and Biebernach store in Watsonville and was remembered as being "a very pleasant and sociable young man and popular with all our people."

Rebeiro began his military experience with the Army National Guard. He was too young for the June 1917 draft registration, but old enough to enlist in Company L of the 2nd California Regiment of the National Guard. Private Rebeiro was sent to Camp Kearney, near San Diego, for training and was there at the time of his father's death on August 31, 1917.

In October Joseph Rebeiro was reassigned to the Presidio of San Francisco where he remained on temporary duty before joining Company H, 103rd Regiment of the 26th Division (Yankee Division). He accompanied that unit to France where it was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division ("Big Red 1").

During the fighting in France, Rebeiro saw combat in the Aisne-Marne offensive of July, the fighting at Chateau-Thierry and the Meuse Argonne. In December, while awaiting transportation back to the United States, Rebeiro contracted the Spanish Flu and was hospitalized.

On January 1, 1919, family members of Joe Rebeiro received a wire informing them that he had died of influenza on December 29, 1918. The remains of Private Joe S. Rebeiro were interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

(CAG; WEP August 31, 1917; WEP October 18, 1917, November 14,1917 5:6; January 1, 1919 1:5)