Joseph M. Kralich, 62, of Pueblo, passed away May 9, 2011. Joe honorably served in the U.S. Army: 196th LIB, 101st Airborne. Joe was buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery on 19 May 2011.
He went by many different names – depending on the mood he was in on a given day: Joe, Joseph Michael, Kra-litch, Jose’, Bo Valdez, Crazy Joe, Gin Buddy, but the one that he liked most of all that suited him best as Joe-Doc. While it’s not always true a Man is what he does, for Joe, it was. Joe was a Doc and a Doc was who he was as well as what he did. He was in the Army for six years and a medic for the entire time after basic and advanced training.
He know well the Combat Medic Prayer. “If I am called to the battlefield, give me the courage to conserve our fighting forces by providing medical care to all who are in need. If I am called to a mission of peace, give me the strength to lead by caring for those who need my assistance.”
He was capable of being any one of his aliases, personae, A.K.A.’s and with his ever-changing affect and effect an mercurial mind-set, he never really knew what or who to expect whenever we encountered him – but the one guaranteed constant was never-changing was that he would always be Joe-Doc.