John Michael Fahy

John was born in Leamington Spa, a town in Warwickshire, England, on 24 July 1924. He would have no memories of life in Britain as his parents, Michael and Edna (Brigham) Fahy, relocated to the United States within a year of his birth. Michael arrived first, hoping to establish himself as a stablehand before sending for his family. Edna and little John, aged eleven months, sailed aboard the SS Celtic from Liverpool in June of 1925. Although their stated destination was Toledo, Ohio, they likely never went that far. Michael found work as a groom at a riding academy in Suffolk County, New York, and the Fahys settled down in the Long Island village of Southampton.

The Fahy family lived quietly in their house on Sebonac Road for most of the 1930s. Michael cared for horses at the academy and then for a private family, Edna kept house, and John attended local schools and started his studies at Southampton High. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, John was seventeen years old and in the middle of his junior year. He dropped out of school, obtained his parents’ permission to enlist, and joined the Marine Corps on 2 April 1942.

Private Fahy completed his initial training at Parris Island without incident, but the next several months proved difficult for the young Marine. He was assigned to radio school at Quantico but couldn’t master the course, failed out of the program, and was reassigned to mess duty. A week later, Fahy disappeared for five days. On his birthday – 24 July 1942 – Fahy was convicted of AWOL and sentenced to fifteen days of solitary confinement on bread and water. It was not an auspicious start to his eighteenth year. His discontent with the Post Signal Battalion increased; he went AWOL again in September and stayed away for nearly a month – and narrowly missed being labeled a deserter. His sentence was two months in the brig and forfeiting half his pay for half a year.

Immediately after his release from the brig, John Fahy received terrible news from home. Michael Fahy died suddenly on 16 December 1942, leaving Edna all alone in their new house in Gondola Gardens. John was allowed an eight-day emergency furlough, which he spent at home on Long Island. He returned to duty on Christmas Day, 1942, hoping to be home again before another year passed.

When Private Fahy reported back to Quantico, he was reassigned to a replacement battalion attached to the Third Marine Brigade. He was soon on his way to the Pacific, and joined Company D, First Battalion, 6th Marines in April 1943. The regiment was then in New Zealand, resting and recuperating from the Guadalcanal campaign. Fahy was absorbed into the 81mm mortar platoon led by Captain Lyle “Spook” Specht, and under this new leadership he finally found his stride in the Marines. He maintained a clean disciplinary record for his entire time in New Zealand, and was promoted to Private First Class in the fall of 1943.

In October, PFC Fahy sailed from New Zealand for his first – and only – combat operation.

After spending a month at sea aboard the USS Feland, PFC Fahy landed on the tiny island of Betio in a tiny rubber boat, and spent his first night in the combat zone on the recently secured Green Beach. The following day, 22 November, his battalion attacked along the southern shore of Betio, rolling up the flanks of Japanese fortifications that were slaughtering other men of the 2nd Marine Division. Evening halted their progress, and Jenks helped his buddies dig foxholes in preparation for a nighttime counterattack.

When a gap in the lines was discovered, Captain  Specht ordered his gunners to leave their heavy mortars and plug the gap using only their personal weapons – mostly small carbines and 60mm mortars, firing at point-blank range. This platoon bore the brunt of a major banzai attack, which one D Company veteran estimated at “300 against maybe forty-five or fifty men.” PFC Fahy likely lost his life in this fight; he was reported killed in action by gunshot wounds in the head.

Fahy was buried in a long trench – “#28, Row D, East Division Cemetery” – alongside some thirty other Marines later that day. The temporary markers put up by 1/6 did not last long; construction of a Navy base ultimately destroyed the scrap wood crosses, and the location of the grave was lost. His remains were declared non-recoverable in 1949.

The “Row D” burial site went undiscovered until the spring of 2019, when an archaeological expedition led by non-profit organization History Flight excavated the site and recovered human remains.


John Fahy was identified from the History Flight recovery and officially accounted for on 5 June 2020.

CENOTAPHS
Courts of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial

Final burial location pending wishes of next of kin.