PVT Phillip Fechuch

PVT Phillip Fechuch was born Philimon Fechuch in Cleveland, Ohio most likely late 1927 or early 1928 but his true date of birth is obscured. He may have been born in January 1928 although many official documents give 5 Dec 1922 and some researchers extrapolate it as being 5 Dec 1927. It is no wonder that there is some confusion about this young man's life. He was most likely the 5th of 6 children of Matthew and Anna (Gutz) Fechuch. It was the 2nd marriage for both of his parents and both were immigrants, Matthew from Russia and Anna from Poland. Phillip had two older half-siblings from his mother's first marriage. Matthew seemed to have attained the American dream. He had immigrated in 1911 and by 1930 he owned a home valued at $3000 and was working as a punch press operator in a local factory. The couple lost 2 children in infancy in 1924. Anna died in December 1931. Matthew remarried soon after. Phillip's education didn't continue past the 4th grade. In 1942 Phillip was arrested for vagrancy in El Paso, Texas and he told police he was 17 although he would have been 14 and reportedly looked to be 14. He soon went to New York where he registered for the draft and gave his correct place of birth but also the date of birth of 5 Dec 1922. He gave his height as 6-foot and weight as 137 pounds. His height might explain how he was able to convince people that he was older than he was. He may have been working as a driver.

Phillip was drafted in June 1943 while he was living in New York City. Like every other draftee he would have been given basic military training before any further assignments. PVT Fechuch would have been assigned to a unit about 5 months or so after in-processing. We don't know to which unit he was assigned but we do know that he was in hospital in January 1944 (bronchitis; cardiac disease; nervous disorder), February 1944 (enteritis) and November 1944 (diagnosed with tuberculosis) and returned to duty every time. The enigma of this young man's life continues as he is first recorded on the morning report in E Company 116th Infantry on 3 Dec 1944 as returning from hospital and as a SSG serving as a squad leader but many of the following entries over the following months are correcting his rank, first to SGT and then to PVT, and his duty position from squad leader to rifleman. PVT (after corrections) Fechuch is noted as being missing in action on 8 Dec 1944. E Company was engaged in fighting at Koslar, Germany. Official military records give the date of death as 6 Dec 1945 although this was long after Germany's surrender in May of 1945. It is more likely that this is a clerical error and it was determined that his actual date of death was most likely 6 or 8 Dec 1944. His body was not recovered. There appears to have been some record that PVT Fechuch was the recipient of a Bronze Star but we can find no record of the citation.

PVT Fechuch is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing in the Netherlands American Cemetery. 

The photo shown is purportedly of Phillip but might not be of him, we are uncertain of the source. His father Matthew served as a PVT in France during WWI in C Company 4th Ammunition Train.