No parent should ever have to bury any of their children, unfortunately, it does happen. During wartime, it just happens too much as was the case during World War II.
Michael James “Mike” Fenton was the son of Colonel Francis Fenton. While Colonel Fenton advanced to higher command, his younger son, Michael, enlisted in the Marine Corps on 17 August 1943 and joined B Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division—the same division his father commanded the engineers. Reportedly turning down a commission so he could fight at the front, Michael served as a scout sniper on Okinawa.
Father and son paths crossed once during the fighting at a partially destroyed Okinawan farmhouse. After exchanging news from home, including information on Michael’s older brother, Francis, Jr., who was commissioned a Marine officer in 1941, the two family members returned to their duties.
They would never talk again.
On 7 May 1945, while beating back a Japanese counterattack not far from Sugar Loaf, 19-year-old Pfc. Michael Fenton was killed. When his father received the bitter news, he travelled to the site of his son’s death and knelt to pray over the flag-draped body.
Upon arising, Colonel Fenton stared at the bodies of other dead Marines and said, “Those poor souls. They didn’t have their fathers here.”
After the burial, Colonel Fenton returned to his headquarters and wrote a brief note to his wife, Mary, in San Diego. The soldiers resurfaced. Fenton fixed his attention on a large map hanging in his headquarters. He studied it closely for a time and then said to his subordinate, “We’d better double the guard around No. 5 bridge. The Nips may try to blow it.” The war was back on.
Mary Fenton learned of her son Michael’s death before she received her husband’s letter. She experienced a bittersweet two days when, on Wednesday, a telegram arrived from the Marine Corps Commandant informing her of the death. The very next day, news came that her husband was awarded his second Bronze Star.
Mrs Fenton told reporters she was proud that Michael had done his duty as a Marine. She quoted a recent letter from him in which the youth wrote that he “dedicated my life to my country” and that he was “prepared to die.” Both Colonel Fenton and his older son survived the war. Mike’s body was later exhumed from his temporary grave and is now resting in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.
RIP
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History of Sorts 
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