A World War II veteran who won the Purple Heart during World War II for being wounded in combat has died at the age of 95.
John M. “J.M.” Fancher Jr. died at his home on Tuesday. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Williams & Lord Funeral Home.
“They broke the mold when they made my daddy,” said son Bob Fancher of Grenada. “He was a loving, giving man that did not like confusion.
“He was a very strong and outgoing person, for sure, and he loved his country.”
Mr. Fancher, who moved to Greenwood from Carroll County at the age of 10, was inducted into the U.S. Army on Nov. 13, 1942, at Camp Shelby and was twice wounded in the line of duty.
Trained at the Presidio in San Francisco, Mr. Fancher was sent to a coastal artillery camp and finally to Fort Ord. His unit was absorbed into the California National Guard and became part of the 7th Infantry Division, which saw action throughout the Pacific, taking many casualties.
His unit, the 184th Regiment, was sent first to the Aleutian Islands on a Liberty ship, used to supply troops. The Aleutian Islands campaign was an effort to keep shipping in the Northern Pacific open.
Mr. Fancher recalled wading through chin-deep water during the invasion of Kiska Island. However, the Japanese had already evacuated the island.
In 1944, in Leyte in the Philippines, Mr. Fancher took a bullet to the shoulder from a Japanese soldier at Bamboo Ridge in 1944.
“I got hit on Friday the 13th,” he told the Commonwealth in a 2008 interview for a Fourth of July story.
Mr. Fancher said his shooting at close range by a pistol-wielding Japanese officer was unexpected.
“I was waiting on him to rise up out of the grass, and he shot through the grass. He did not play fair,” Mr. Fancher said.
After Fancher was wounded, the Japanese officer “raised up and grinned,” he said.
“My buddy was sitting over in a hole and shot him 20 times with a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle). He didn’t get well from that,” Mr. Fancher recalled.
Mr. Fancher was sent to an Army hospital on Saipan and then returned to the front lines.
On April 1, 1945, his unit landed on the Japanese island of Okinawa, where he was a victim of friendly fire, injured by a grenade. He received a hip injury, was bandaged and remained on the front line.
Upon his return to Camp Shelby, Mr. Fancher received a Purple Heart for wounds sustained in combat.
He joined the U.S. Army Reserve in December 1949 and served in an engineering unit that was called up for the Korean War, where he was deployed again for two years and was awarded the Good Conduct Medal.
For many years after returning to Greenwood, Mr. Fancher ran a store on U.S. 82 across from Mississippi Valley State University. He retired in 1984.
He reflected on the costs and rewards of military service in his 2008 interview.
“Only three of us in the platoon came back together,” he said. “Not all of them had been killed, but they’d been wounded and separated.”
Johnny Favara, commander of American Legion Post 29, said he is honored that the post will be providing its services in honor of Mr. Fancher at his funeral.
“He deserves much more,” Favara said. “J.M. was a member of Post 29 for many years, and I think he headed the VFW at one time. And of course, his military service to his country went above and beyond.
“We all certainly admire people with Purple Hearts. They don’t give those out; they earn them.”
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
