Memorial

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"Second Lieutenant Paul Douglas Fairbanks, 28, of the 3rd Armored Division, 1st Army is reported to have died in a hospital in Belgium on Jan. 4 as a result of wounds received in action on the western front. Mr. and Mrs. Fairbanks had received word on Monday, Jan. 22, that their son had been seriously wounded on Jan. 3 and on the following day they were notified of his death. Entering the service on April 7, 1941, he received his basic training at Fort Bragg, N.C., and in July, 1942, was graduated from the Armored Forces Officers Candidate School at Fort Knox, Ky. On May 1, 1944, he went overseas with an Excess Officers Division and later was assigned to a Combat Engineers Unit with which he entered Normandy on June 8 and served with through France and Belgium. In November he was re-assigned to the 3rd Armored Division. Lieutenant Fairbanks was born in Bainbridge on April 29, 1916. He attended Bainbridge High School, graduating with the Class of 1935. During his Junior and Senior years, he starred on the football team and for two consecutive years was chosen as center on the all-star team of the Susquehanna division of the Susquenango League in the annual game. He attended Swarthmore College for one year of post-graduate work and then entered the University of Wisconsin where he completed three years of college work. He was a member of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, serving as acolyte for 10 years. He was active as a member of the Boy Scouts, attaining the rank of Eagle Scout. During the summer of 1932, he was selected to go to Washington D.C., to the National Scout Jamboree, but due to the infantile paralysis epidemic, the convention was postponed. On June 8, 1943, Lieutenant Fairbanks was married to Miss Katherine Wheat, of Louisville, Ky., at the Chapel at Camp Campbell, Ky., by Major James Clark. Mrs. Fairbanks is in nurses' training at the Norton Infirmary (Episcopal Hospital), Louisville, Ky., from which she will be graduated in June."