Meet Lafayette's World War II veteran born on July 4

Amanda McElfresh | The Daily Advertiser

Show Caption Hide Caption World War II veteran recalls his life, career Lafayette native and resident Harry Fishback recalls his military service and six-decade career with Frank's Casing Crew.

When Harry Fishback was a child, his mother told him people displayed American flags for his birthday.

As he got older, he realized that wasn’t quite the case, even though his birthday does fall on July 4.

“It’s just another year older,” said Fishback, who turns 93 this year.

Fishback has never dwelled on when his birthday falls. He was too busy serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and working for more than six decades for Frank’s Casing Crew in Lafayette.

As a child and teenager growing up in the Great Depression, Fishback did whatever needed to be done. Raised primarily by his grandparents on a five-acre farm at the corner of Pinhook Road and the Breaux Bridge Highway, he delivered The Daily Advertiser on foot during the 1930s.

He also caddied at the municipal golf course, picked cotton and beans and racked pins at the bowling alley.

With World War II raging, Fishback knew it was only a matter of time before he was called up to serve. He enlisted in the military when he was 17 years old.

“I was Navy, but I served in the Marine Corps,” he recalled. “I joined the Navy; I went through boot camp and then hospital school, then I was transferred to the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton. I did field medical training there and I was a combat medic in the Marines.”

Fishback’s service took him to the end of the Guadalcanal campaign, the Bougainville campaign and Guam. He served for nearly four years, then returned to the United States.

Fishback was working on an oil rig off the Louisiana coast when it caught fire, forcing him out of work. A chance meeting with a school friend led him to what he thought was a temporary stint with Frank’s Casing Crew.

He ended up spending nearly 65 years as a Frank’s employee, retiring at the end of 2012.

“We always did our best,” he said. “We always had a good reputation.”

One of Fishback’s sons contacted Guinness World Records to see if he was the person who worked for one company the longest. They learned a man in Pennsylvania worked for 69 years for a newspaper, but Fishback may have the longest tenure of anyone at an oil and gas company.

These days, Fishback stays active. He makes a daily trek to a nearby gas station to pick up a newspaper. He replaced the wooden boards in his porch. He and his wife Lou enjoy traveling to casinos in Lake Charles, Marksville and Mississippi.

Although his military career is long behind him, Fishback said, he still sees value in it for today’s young people.

“I think it would be good for anybody,” he said. “It teaches you that when you do something, do it right, the best you can.”