Fisk, who died in 2002, might speak generally about the war if the topic came up, his children recall, but he never detailed his personal experiences.
It was daughter Glenda Wheeler’s research into his war service that brought her a pleasant but bittersweet surprise: Fisk had earned but never received a number of service awards during his work aboard the USS Dorsey.
Now his children finally have received the military medals and ribbons he earned during wartime. The Waco Naval Recruiting Office presented a framed box exhibiting the medals to Wheeler, her brothers John and Harold Fisk, sister Debbie Ferrell and Pete Fisk, Gene Fisk’s youngest brother.
“We know the stories, but this is actual, tangible evidence that can be passed down,” said Wheeler, who lives in Bruceville-Eddy. “He was a hero to his family for the entire 80 years of his life.”
The awards include a World War II Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal with a silver star and the Combat Action Ribbon, as well as Fisk’s discharge pin and honorable service lapel pin. Wheeler also reached out to the Philippine government to obtain her father’s Philippine Liberation Medal with a bronze star and the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation.
Petty Officer James Harrelson said service members today generally receive medals and awards as they are earned. But there are cases when a person may transfer or leave the unit before the award is given, and he or she has to research the medal online and request it.
“Back in World War II time, it was different because there were so many people coming in and out of the service all at once, so it was harder to keep track of then,” Harrelson said, noting that a ship may have as many as 6,000 people aboard. “Plus there weren’t computers back then, and paper records get shuffled around.”
Fisk was in the Pacific Theater of World War II for just more than three years.
His ship, the minesweeper USS Dorsey, was part of the support patrol that accompanied battleships to familiar war hotspots — Iwo Jima, Okinawa, the Philippines.
The ship also transported supplies and moved wounded servicemen to medical ships.
August 1942
He told of battles at sea where the ship had to defend itself against kamikaze Japanese air attacks, of losing friends and sailors in battle, of being stuck aboard the ship for extended periods while the war raged on.
On one occasion, the sailors rallied together to shoot down a Japanese dive bomber unit that was attacking the convoy, Wheeler said.
“He was a very proud man,” Ferrell said. “He served his country well, and he didn’t brag about it, and he didn’t look for anything, any acknowledgment.”
“That’s just the way that generation was,” John Fisk said.
Wheeler said Fisk’s tales often were sprinkled with humorous anecdotes,but mostly he told of the camaraderie with his fellow Navy men.
“Most of his stories were not about the horrors of war, it was what they did together, how the men worked together and got themselves through the things they had to go through,” Wheeler said.
Fisk returned to Central Texas in 1947, relocating to Bruceville-Eddy and marrying Louise Lamb. He worked at the Waco Veterans Affairs Medical Center for 30 years before retiring.
Wheeler said that when she first began pressing her father with World War II questions, he easily recalled certain memories but couldn’t remember dates of particular incidents or the names of some of the men with whom he served.
Wheeler used the information to create a timeline of Fisk’s service experiences.
But it wasn’t until 2012, while continuing to work on the family’s history, that Wheeler thought of looking for any possible awards her dad may have earned.
A year passed after she requested a copy of Fisk’s service records from the National Personnel Records Center before the medals arrived in the mail.