While Sergeant Jose Velez was training in Iraq in 2005, he became known for his generosity. Fellow soldiers referred to him as Java Joe because he shared coffee sent from his Melrose home with them.
Java Joe paid the ultimate price for his generosity in June 2006, when an improvised explosive device blew up the truck he was driving at the head of a convoy in Kirkuk. The explosion killed the then 35-year-old Velez.
Dozens of soldiers from the Army Reserve’s 773rd Transportation Company in which Velez served came to honor their fallen comrade at the official renaming of the street corner of E. 156th St. and Courtlandt Ave. in Melrose as Sergeant Jose Velez Ave, on Memorial Day weekend.
Velez’s commanding officer, Major Thomas Sullivan, remembered the soldier’s thoughtfulness.
“I don’t have the answers about why this happened, but I believe you have someone looking over you,” Sullivan told Velez’s family members at the renaming ceremony.
Velez left a son and daughter, Christopher and Melody, who were both on hand to honor their father, as were his mother, Rosa, and two brothers and two sisters.
One fellow New Yorker who served with Velez was not surprised at the extensive turnout of friends, family and soldiers for the ceremony, even five years after his death.
“Some ceremonies, you get all family, maybe one or two soldiers,” said Michael Hewitt of Queens, as he and dozens of other soldiers who served with Velez gathered with tenants and family members for refreshments in the community room at the Andrew Jackson Houses where he lived.
“He was outgoing, happy-go-lucky, willing to help you out with anything,” recalled Hewitt, who drove a truck in Velez’s last convoy.
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