BY NOAH HERTZ
DeLandite Pfc. Joseph Hazzard serves in the U.S. Army and is currently stationed in South Korea. After a year away, he is visiting family for the Fourth of July and his birthday. Hazzard’s wife and high-school sweetheart, Ashley Hazzard, is also pregnant with the couple’s first child. She is due in November, Joseph Hazzard’s stepmother Jennifer Hazzard told The Beacon.
“He has always been caring, intelligent, determined, adventurous, brave and strong! He is without a doubt truly admired and loved by his whole family,” she said. “His dad and I wouldn’t be who we are today, wouldn’t have accomplished as much as we have and wouldn’t be as happy as we are, without him and the rest of his brothers and sisters.”
Hazzard enlisted in the U.S. Army shortly after graduating from DeLand High School in 2019. He entered the Army as an army intelligence analyst and has worked in that position since he enlisted.
His family is looking forward to spending time with him, his stepmother said, before he has to return to his station in South Korea. But in the meantime, she added, they’re grateful to see him honored by his hometown.
