Shipfitter, First Class John Laird Fahy
It was October 26, 1942 that
John Laird Fahy, son of Iva Pearl Fahy, was reported missing after the destroyer Meredith was sunk in the Solomon Islands on October 15. Fahy was serving as a shipfitter.
After spending time in San Francisco and Hawaii, John had been assigned to the Meredith on his birthday, April 24. At the time of this tragedy, he was an experienced seaman, having been in the Navy for eight years, enlisting in October, 1935.
Defiance Crescent -News, December 1, 1942
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency gave this report on the incident:
On October 15, 1942, a U.S. convoy of six ships was towing barges loaded with urgently needed supplies toward Guadalcanal. The American forces on that island were in dire need of resupply. When the convoy was spotted by enemy aircraft, all but two ships withdrew from the area.
The two ships which pressed on were the U.S.S. Meredith, a destroyer, and the U.S.S. Vireo, a lightly armed towing vessel. Upon receiving word that the Japanese surface warships were operating in the area, both ships were forced to turn back from their missions.
_at_Suva,_Fiji_Islands,_on_23_June_1942_(NH_89418).jpg) |
| U.S.S. Meredith, 1942 |
Within minutes, the Meredith was attacked by a large force of enemy aircraft. The destroyer sustained multiple bomb and torpedo hits and quickly sank. The majority of the crews of both ships was killed in the incident."
John Fahy, born April 24, 1913, in Defiance, Ohio was a resident of Delaware Township. His parents, Carl, who died in 1934, and Iva Pearl (Slough) Fahy, also had three daughters- Mrs. Pearl Speiser, Darlene Fahy and Mary Agnes Fahy, and two sons - Robert and Lt. James Fahy, who also served in WW II.
Although the body was not recovered, the family placed a memorial stone in the Sherwood Cemetery. Shipfitter First Class Fahy is also memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
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| Sherwood Cemetery, Sherwood, Ohio |
Mary Williams, Researcher
