Joseph Mathews Fell was born July 17, 1928 in Rochester, New York to Sarah and Chester Fell. When he was young his family moved to Buffalo where he attended elementary and high school, graduating from Bennett High School in 1946. He attended the University of Denver and was drafted into the Army where he became a paratrooper.

After being honorably discharged from the Army, he took private flying lessons and earned a private as well as a commercial license. He loved to fly and decided he would rather fly planes than jump out of them! He joined the New York Air National Guard 107th Tactical Fighter Group based at Niagara Falls IAP , NY. The Air Nation Guard sent him to Air Force basic training in Florida as a cadet. A year later he was sent to Bryon Air Force Base in Texas where he graduated in 1955 as a Lieutenant with wings. He proposed to Marcia Thayer after graduation, giving her a pair of wings. Following graduation, Joe was off to Nellis AFB for fighter pilot training. Marcia and Joe were married in 1956 and had one daughter, Stacey.

He returned to the Air Guard at Niagara as a "weekend warrior" and later became a full-time ANG Technician. The 107th was called to active duty to Vietnam in 1968-1969 where Joe, as a Major, flew 254 combat sorties in the F-100. For his combat in Viet Nam Joe earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and several Air Medals.

In 1972, now a Lt. Colonel, Joe was one of two guardsmen in the country chosen to attend the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, AL where most of his classmates were "full birds." He graduated in the spring of 1973.

Back at Niagara, flying F-101's, Joe was killed in an aircraft accident on an interceptor training mission due to an aircraft malfunction over Lake Ontario on July 7, 1973. Joe Fell's body and his aircraft were never recovered from the 700 feet of water in which the aircraft was lost.

Joe was an outstanding aviator and he was a serious, exceptional officer.

Submitted by Stacey Milne, Joe Fell's daughter and edited by LTC Allen E. Strasser, one of Joe's squadron mates in the NYANG