Every Veteran Is a Story: Joseph Chvala

By: Russ Horton, Archivist

While most people associate naval service with the water, Joseph Chvala spent his time with the U.S. Navy in the air. The Tomahawk, Wisconsin native was a student at the Oshkosh State Teachers College, now the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, when he volunteered to serve in the U.S. Navy in November 1941, mere weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Chvala trained as a pilot at stateside naval bases in Illinois and Texas before deploying to the European theater.

He served as a pilot with VPB-110, a navy patrol bombing squadron based out of Dunkeswell, England. Flying a PB4Y-1, which was a version of the B-24 Liberator made specifically for the navy, Chvala and his crew conducted more than 30 patrol missions searching for and destroying German submarines that threatened Allied ships. One of those missions ended with Chvala and his crew walking away from a crash landing. After the war in Europe ended, he finished his active duty at naval bases in California and Washington. He received his honorable discharge in October 1946, almost five years after he joined the navy.

Using the GI Bill, Chvala finished his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin and continued into law school there, receiving his law degree in 1949. He settled in Madison, where he worked for American Family Insurance, rising to become vice president of operations. After retiring in 1987, he practiced law with a local firm. He passed away in January 2000.

In 2012, his family donated an incredible scrapbook full of photographs, papers including his training notebook, additional loose photos, and a parachute bag to the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. These items document the entirety of his navy service and allow our museum to both preserve and share his unique story.