About the Author
Joe Tedeschi
Husband, Father, Soldier, Deacon
Joe Tedeschi's first book recounts how his 1966 combat tour with the 1st Air Cav headquarterd in An Khe, Vietnam, was cut short by a violent airplane crash, chronicles this near-death experience, then leads to reflecting for fifty-five years on the ultimate question, “Why am I (still) here?”
A life that is not reflected upon isn’t worth living. It belongs to the essence of being human that we contemplate our life, think about it, discuss it, evaluate it, and form opinions about it. Half of living is reflecting on what is being lived.
—Henri Nouwen
Joe Tedeschi began his college education at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, before initiating his army career at West Point, graduating in 1957. Eventually earning his army-sponsored Master of Science degree in physics from Iowa State University (1963), he went on to fill army assignments in nuclear, biological, and chemical operations and materiel acquisition.
Upon retiring from military service as a regular army colonel, he worked fourteen years in the defense industry developing a counter battery radar for three European nations. He then transitioned to a higher calling as he entered the deaconate program in his Catholic diocese of Trenton, New Jersey, where he served for eighteen years, retiring in 2020.
