Mario Fred Izzo, son of Italian parents Alfredo and Anna Izzo, was born 25 November 1920 in New York City. He enlisted in the US Naval Reserve at New York 11 April 1938 and served on USS Tuscaloosa in 1939 before joining the crew of the supply ship USS Pollux as Fireman, 1st class in June of 1940. He remained on that ship until it was wrecked off the coast of Newfoundland 18 February 1942. His body was never recovered but was presumed drowned and his name appears on the Tablets of the Missing, East Coast Memorial, Battery Park, New York.
After his death Izzo's mother wrote to the people of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, asking "Is there any trace of a young 20 year old man named Mario Izzo, member of the crew of USS Pollux?" She had had a dream that he was alive, a victim of amnesia; she enclosed photos of her son to be passed around to see if he could be identified.
