- Date Of Birth: October 31, 1934
- Date Of Death: September 12, 2014
- State: Rhode Island
WOONSOCKET – Joseph L. B. Nadeau, a retired U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sergeant, died Friday at home. He was the husband of the late Dorothy C. Nadeau.
Born in Woonsocket on Oct. 31, 1934, he was a son of the late Leo Aime Nadeau and Anita (Boudreau) Nadeau.
He attended St. Joseph’s Elementary School and was a 1952 graduate of Mount St. Charles Academy.
Earning an Associate of Science degree from Dean Junior College in Franklin, MA, in 1978, Mr. Nadeau also attended Bryant College, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in 1983.
Following his career in the Air Force, he was a salesman for Sears at Walnut Hill Plaza for 20 years while operating his own real estate business, the Joe Nadeau & Sons Real Estate Agency from his home.
Mr. Nadeau joined the Air Force in 1952, undergoing Basic Training at Sampson Air Force Base in New York and attending Aircraft and Engine Mechanic School in Amarillo, Texas. He also attended Advanced Aircraft and Engine Mechanic School at Shepherd Air Force Base in Texas and worked on the F-86D jet fighter and the T-33 shooting star jet aircraft.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he served with the 26th Air Defense BOMARC Missile Squadron at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod and participated in the preparation of the squadron’s nuclear-tipped surface-to-air missiles for the defense of the East Coast during the Cuban Missile Crisis with the Soviet Union.
He continued to work with the BOMARC program while assigned to the 4751st Air Defense Missile Wing at Hurlbert Field, near the town of Mary Ester in Okaloosa County, Fla., serving with disaster control in the launch of BOMARCS for various anti-missile tests conducted into the early 1970s.
As part of his military training, he attended Non-Commissioned Officer’s Management Training in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the Boeing Factory BOMARC Missile Training School in Seattle, Washington, the Non-Commissioned Officers Academy in Colorado Springs, Test Writing School in San Antonio, Texas in 1972, and First Sergeants School at Hamilton Air Force Base in California in 1973.
He served as First Sergeant of the 762nd Radar Squadron at North Truro Air Force Station, MA, until his retirement in 1974.
Mr. Nadeau and his family relocated to Woonsocket in 1974, returning to the East Woonsocket neighborhood in which he had grown up.
