Camp Fannin

 Short Form/A-H / I-R / S-Z/ Nomination Form

Roll of Honor

Camp Fannin, Texas
Infantry Replacement Training Center
U.S. Army, 1943-46

ROLL OF HONOR

of Fannin Veterans who died in uniform during World War II

All gave some, but some gave all. (Courtesy of Mrs. Wilmer Carol

 Jumper Mercer, daughter of  Roll Member Isaac Wilmer Jumper.)

The Purple Heart, honored symbol awarded to U. S military personnel killed or wounded by enemy action.

This website contains the following documents:

• A short form of the Camp Fannin Roll of Honor showing the names of Fannin veterans who died in uniform during World War II with serial number and unit assignment at time of death if known.  Click on a name for an expanded version, described next.                                                                                                                                                                                                              

• Expanded versions of Roll entries.  Click A-H, I-R, or S-Z. Expanded entries  contain, where known, the following information arranged by alphabetical code:

a) hometown or state;
b) dates and unit at Camp Fannin;
c) date and place of death;
d) unit assignment at time of death;
e) circumstances of death;
f) places of burial (temporary and permanent);
g) name and relationship of person(s) submitting information;
h) awards and miscellaneous information.

Expanded profiles include photos where available. If you have a better photo of a Roll member, send it on and we will use it in place of the one currently showing.  We also add the appropriate division patch to each profile.  A click on a name in the short form raises his expanded profile.

• A nomination form to be used in submitting a name that does not currently appear on the Roll.

 

• Shoulder patches of U. S. Army infantry divisions and other organizations during World War II. To see them,  push one of the numbered buttons  below at the right: Button 1, 1st through 26th Infantry Divisions; 2, 27th through 63rd Infantry Divisions; 3, 65th through 88th Infantry Divisions; 4, 89th through 106th Infantry Division and the Philippine Division; 5, Infantry units below division size; 6, Artillery and Engineer units; 7, Armored Divisions 1 through 20;  8, Cavalry and Chemical Mortar Battalions.

The insignia at the top of the page:  Every stateside Army camp during World War II was defined by a combination of  two or more insignia, one of which was always a Service Command emblem.  Camp Fannin displayed the Eighth Service Command patch, right above, and the Replacement and School Command patch, left, which was the sub-command of the Army Ground Forces which ran all of the ground forces replacement training centers in the country.  The service commands were geographical divisions of the Army Service Forces and did ASF work stateside.  The  Eighth Service Command, with headquarters in Dallas, serviced Army facilities in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and New Mexico.

We add names of Camp Fannin veterans who died in uniform during World War II and make corrections continuously to our Roll of Honor as new information is provided.

If you have personal knowledge of the death in uniform of someone not currently on the Roll  who served at Camp Fannin, please nominate him or her for membership in the Camp Fannin Roll of Honor. Write to Roll of Honor, 2213 Mendoza Avenue, Tallahassee, Florida 32304-1319 requesting a nomination form or e-mail your request to <ethorne003@comcast.net>. Also, please notify us at the same address whenever you find a broken link or other aberration.

The Camp Fannin Roll of Honor lists only the names of Camp Fannin veterans whose deaths in uniform during World War II have been documented. We waited until 1991 to form a Camp Fannin Association, which triggered creation of the Roll.  Had we acted in 1951 or 1961, we would have had access to a vastly greater body of information and our Roll of Honor would include perhaps hundreds of additional names. But we’re still trying and maybe one day we’ll stumble upon a lode which to this point has never been discovered despite patient, systematic search.

Meantime, we continue to add names which come in – slowly, to be sure, but steadily. The first Roll, published in the Spring 1995 issue of the Association newspaper, Camp Fannin Guidon, listed 26 names. The most recent issue, dated 12 December 2011, contains 218 names. The most recent entry is John Ray Burklow, who died 22 September 1944 on the Gothic Line in Italy while fighting with the 91st Infantry Division.  Other recent entries are  James D. Burd, who died March 26, 1945, while fighting with the 35th Infantry Division near Dinslaken, Germany, just east of the Rhine.and  Harold L. Heindel of Idaho Falls, Idaho, who died May 10, 1945 while fighting with the 96th Infantry Division on Okinawa.  His name was submitted by Shane Olson, Adjutant, 9^th District Sons of American Legion, 216 Railroad Avenue South, Halma, Minnesota 56729-2908..  Shane, like Carl Settle (see second paragraph below) has provided many names for our Roll of Honor.  This  issue also shows changes provided by Shane for eight other members of our Roll of Honor:  Floyd A. Fahnestock, Walter L. Foltz, J. T. Garner, James E. Gill, Edward F. Grizzell, Clifford R. Heaton, Bryann Hoerrmann, and John Hollingsworth. .

It is important to note that trainees were not the only Fannin veterans killed in uniform in World War II. Cadre were regularly reassigned to combat units, and a number of cadre members are to be found on our Roll of Honor, including Col. Martin Barndollar, who was killed in Normandy July 4, 1944.  He had been commander of the Camp Fannin Branch Immaterial Replacement Training Center (BIRTC) before it was redesignated Camp Fannin Infantry Replacement Training Center (IRTC).

One thing that has always been a worry to Camp Fannin Association is our inability to find the names of everyone who should be on our Roll of Honor.  It would seem at first glance that chances of ever having a complete Roll are waning with the ever-accelerating rate of mortality of Fannin vets.  But there are very real reasons to hope that we will be able to add dozens if not hundreds of names before we’re done.  To put a name to that hope,  call it the Carl A. Settle Phenomenon.  Carl is a Fannin vet who has never been satisfied with less than full information.  He’s a highly-skilled researcher who uses primarily the Internet in his diligent search for the facts related to Camp Fannin veterans who died in uniform during World War II. To date (12 December 2011) he has contributed information to 45 of the 218 entries in our Roll.  Nobody else is likely ever to do that, but if your own inclination is to add a name or two,  we want to hear from you.  Queries to ethorne003@comcast.net.

12/15/2011

Symbol of a grateful nation's  remembrance of our war dead: Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

Elmer Horne is proud to be curator of the  Camp Fannin Roll of Honor.  But he cannot pose as Webmaster of this <campfanninrollofhonor.com/> website.  His good friend, Ray Colletti, also of Tallahassee, did that job. Ray patiently  attempted to equip Elmer with skills necessary to establish the site, but failing, he took it all on himself, and produced this wonderful professionally-styled site "as a contribution to the World War II generation," as he put it.

Ray is a Systems Project Consultant with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and volunteer Webmaster of a division Toastmasters site and of a site for Theatre A La Carte, a musical theatre company, of which he is also a member of the board of directors and master photographer and videographer.  Ray's and Elmer's paths first converged at Theatre A La Carte, where Elmer once had a role in a show, and which Ray and his family have faithfully served for more than a dozen years.  His wife Caroline is also a member of the Theatre A La Carte board of directors and has had on-stage and off-stage roles in many productions, as have their three children.