Enrolled in the Yuma Young Marines at only nine years of age, Joe stayed in the program through high school. Later, at the behest of his father, he attended Parris Island where he concluded his marine training at the top of his recruit battalion. After eighteen months in Fox Company’s Second Platoon, Third Marine Regiment, Hawaii and six months at Twentynine Palms in California, he received an honorable discharge when his esteemed father, Clarence Ryback, was mysteriously and famously murdered. This was the trigger that brought him back to the states... and to the waiting nightmare.