A Santa Cruzan who served with the Canadian Army was a different brand of doughboy.

Joel Gaba, the son of Mark and Annie Gaba, was born on August 20, 1880, in South Norwalk, Connecticut. During their stay in Santa Cruz, the Gaba family resided on Otis Street. Also included in the family were their son Sam and daughter Fanny. It is not known how long Joel remained in Santa Cruz, but in September 1917 he was unmarried and working as a watchman in Portland, Oregon.

On September 17, 1917, Joel Gaba reported to a Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force recruiting office, probably in British Columbia, and enlisted in the Canadian army. At the time of his enlistments Gaba was described as being thirty-seven years of age with a dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair. He also indicated that his religious denomination of preference was the Presbyterian Church.

Joel's initial assignment was with a Canadian Army hospital unit in Victoria, British Columbia. In March 1918 he wrote his parents indicating that he was "being kept busy night and day setting up special tents for the contagious as much of the camp was quarantined for measles." Later in the year Gaba served as a Sapper (combat engineer) in the Canadian Railway Troops, 7th Bn Division, and traveled with that unit to England.

On February 13, 1919, Joel Gaba died in Liverpool, England, of pneumonia and his remains were buried in the Kirkdale Cemetery in Liverpool.

(War Graves Commission, Canadian World War I Enlistment Records and Commonwealth,
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ databases/cef/001042-100.01-e.php [16 September 2008]; SCSf March 16, 1918 4:1; WEP March 03, 1919 3:4)