Joseph Leo Behan was born in 1919 to Mabel and Dr. Joseph L. Behan. He entered Saint Peter’s College in 1935 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts on June 4, 1939. He subsequently entered the United States Navy Reserve. After completing the Navy’s four-month intensified training course, he was commissioned a lieutenant on June 6, 1941 by Rear Admiral Adolphus Andrews, commandant of the Third Naval District and commander of the North Atlantic Naval Coastal Patrol. Admiral Andrews reminded the mothers, fathers and sweethearts at the ceremony that the young men commissioned had answered the call of their country to serve in time of national emergency and that they "may face grim days ahead."

Lt. Behan was activated from his reserve status at the beginning of World War II. He ultimately served with the Navy Engineer Battalion aboard the USS Lamson in 1944. On December 7, 1944, the Lamson was participating in an amphibious landing on the eastern shore of Ormoc Bay during the invasion of the Philippines when a Kamikaze attack severely damaged the ship.  Lt. Behan was killed in the attack. The official casualty report shows "Killed in Action" by a bomb from an enemy aircraft. Wounds were multiple. Lt. Behan was awarded the Purple Heart Medal, the American Defense Service Medal with Fleet clasp, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the WWII Victory Medal.

Lt. Behan is buried at the Manila American Cemetery at Fort Bonifacio in Manila, Philippines. He is memorialized at the WWII Monument in Fort William Mckinley, also in Manila, Philippines.