He was less than exceptional as a student. His 1940 class rank was 138 out of 184. However, John Fardy was learning to be a hero—one of America’s Saints as a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.
John Fardy was not a school athlete and played on no teams at Leo. The only activity listed on his senior page is Public Speaking. After graduating from Leo, he took a course in typing at Fox Secretarial College and entered the Illinois Institute of Technology the following year. He majored in mechanical engineering but left after the first year. He had been doing time-study work previously, so he went to work at the Cornell Forge Co. as a time-study man and draftsman. Then came military service—Japan attacked the United States.
Inducted into the Marine Corps on May 8, 1943, Fardy went through recruit training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. Upon completion of basic training, he was assigned to the Japanese Language School at his own request. He was promoted to Private First Class in July. After one month at the language school at Camp Elliott, San Diego, PFC Fardy was transferred to the Infantry Battalion, where he was trained as an automatic rifleman.
PFC Fardy joined the 29th Replacement Battalion shortly before the unit left the United States on Oct. 28, 1943. He traveled to Nouméa, New Caledonia, and was reassigned to the 27th Replacement Battalion, which was leaving to join the 1st Marine Division.
Attached to C Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines upon his arrival at Goodenough Island in December 1943, PFC Fardy left with that unit about a week later for Nascing, Alatu, New Guinea. The stay there was a short one. On Christmas Day the 1st Marines left for their Dec. 26 landing on enemy-held Cape Gloucester, New Britain. Within two months of his departure from the U.S., the former draftsman was involved in a battle for an enemy airdrome on a little-known island.
Following the Cape Gloucester operation, the 1st Marine Division returned to the Russell Islands for three months of training, then left for Peleliu. After practice landings at Guadalcanal, the division landed on the coral-studded, shadeless Peleliu. PFC Fardy participated in the capture of the airport and the attack on the coral hills overlooking it before returning to the Russell Islands with his regiment in early October.
Promoted to Corporal on December 21, 1944, Fardy became a squad leader as the reorganized division started training for its next operation. The training ashore ended in February, and the Marines embarked aboard ships that took them for practice landings at Baniki (Russell Islands), Guadalcanal and Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands. The landing on Okinawa occurred on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, and the division’s sweep across the island up to the northern tip was accomplished with comparative ease. Later, Marines were moved south to help hard-pressed Army troops.
On May 6, 1945, C Company was advancing against a strongly fortified, fanatically defended Japanese position when Cpl. Fardy’s squad suddenly came under heavy small-arms fire. Cpl. Fardy temporarily deployed his men along a convenient drainage ditch. Shortly thereafter, an enemy grenade landed in the ditch among the pinned-down Marines. Instantly, the 21-year-old Cpl. Fardy flung himself upon the grenade and absorbed the exploding charge with his own body. Taken to a field hospital, he died the next day.
The Medal of Honor was presented to Corporal Fardy’s parents at ceremonies conducted by the Marine Corps League in Chicago on Sept. 15, 1946. Re-interment services for Cpl Fardy, with military honors by the Chicago Detachment of the Marine Corps League, were held on April 7, 1949, at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.
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