Page 23 - Gold Star Sons of Georgetown Prep

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UNITED STATES ARMY FIELD ARTILLERY
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1ST LIEUTENANT FEARN FIELD ’36
MARCH 6, 1945 GERMANY
Fearn Field, a native of Washington, D. C., and the son of U. S. Navy Captain Richard S. Field, who eventually served as head of the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, attended Georgetown Prep for only his freshman year (1932-33). Fearn struggled academically at Prep, failing Ancient History and Elementary Algebra, and finishing with a 74 in English. His best grade was a 78 in Latin. He left Prep after his freshman year and went on to attend Western High School in the District of Columbia, Jaccard’s School in Lausanne, Switzerland, St. Albans in the District, and Rogers High School in Newport.
Choosing to pursue a different service than his father, Fearn eventually secured an appointment to the United States Military Academy and was commissioned a second Lieutenant in the West Point class of 1943. Nicknamed “Old Fenh” by his West Point classmates, Fearn was known for brewing up a “potent pot of pekoe tea” and sitting down with his buddies “to argue any and every point under the sun.”
It is not clear if Fearn requested to be assigned to the Artillery Branch of the U. S. Army, or whether he was placed
there because of the Army’s particular manpower needs. Whatever the reason, Fearn wound up in the 7th Field Artillery Observation Battalion. The 500 man 7th had been formed shortly before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but had not yet deployed to Europe when Fearn joined it.
The Battalion had the highly specialized and hazardous responsibility of determining the source of enemy artillery fire, and it needed extensive training to carry out its mission. Operating on the front lines, the members of the battalion “used state-of-the-art technology to mathematically triangulate” the location of German artillery. They then directed American counter fire to silence the German guns. The forward observation posts from which the battalion operated were vulnerable to enemy artillery, patrols, counter attacks, and ambushes.
Assigned to the 3rd Army commanded by General George S. Patton, the 7th became known as “Patton’s Forward Observers.”They were in the vanguard of the breakout in Normandy and swift advance through France during the summer of 1944, and played a key role in the bloody fighting
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