Joe Carrol Mason was the only child of Willie Joe Mason, who had been a P.O.W. in Germany during World War II, and Catherine Mason. He was a 1966 graduate of West Point High School. He attended Wood Jr. College before enlisting in the U.S. Navy. He attended school at the Great Lakes Naval Station for training. He was assigned duty on the nuclear aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, the world’s largest warship at 85,000 tons and home to 5,000 naval service people. The Enterprise had been making training missions off the cost of California in late 1968. On January 7, 1969, Joe telephoned his parents to tell them that he was working the day shift on the carrier as an ordinance man. On January 14, the USS Enterprise was on a training exercise at Kahoolawe, an uninhabited island 75 miles from Honolulu used as a bombing range, pending redeployment to the western Pacific. The Enterprise had seen action off Vietnam several times.

During the early morning training on January 14, 1969, after one flight of planes had left the carrier, the crews were preparing to launch a second group armed with live bombs and rockets. An explosion occurred in or near an F4 Phantom jet parked about 75 feet from the stern of the ship. At least 10 explosions occurred on the flight deck of the Enterprise, and the initial account was 24 crew members dead, 85 injured, and 17 missing. Fifteen aircraft were destroyed, including eight F4 Phantoms, six A7 Corsairs, and one A3 Sky Warrior, plus others were damaged. The flight deck suffered 3 large holes, one penetrated into three lower decks where a number of bodies were found. The final toll of the dead aboard the giant carrier was 27 and 85 injured. Indications were that the exhaust from a starter cart may have caused the overheating of a Zuni rocket attached to the wing of an airplane. This caused other bomb and rockets to explode on airplanes parked nearby.

Joe Mason was declared missing by the Navy after the disastrous explosions on the 14th of January. He was later officially declared dead by the Department of Defense. He was blown overboard from the second explosion to occur aboard the Enterprise. The Air Force flew over the area for two days looking for him and the other missing Sea Men.

His body was never recovered and memorial services were held for him in his hometown of West Point on January 16, 1969. The West Point High School Class of 1966 established a memorial fund for the benefit of the Palmer Home for Children in Columbus in his honor.

On his last visit home, New Years of 1969, his mother warned him about falling overboard. His reply to his mother was, "If I go overboard it will be God's Will, mama."