Aaron Fisher
*Aaron Fisher was born on this date in 1895. He was a Black WW I soldier.
He served over thirty years in the U.S. Army and received several military awards. Aaron Richard Fisher was born in the Lyles Station community in Gibson County, Indiana. He was the son of Macy Octiva (Barnhill) and Benjamin F. Fisher. Aaron's father, a farmer, had served in the Infantry with the U.S. Colored Troops during the American Civil War. His mother died when he was ten years old; his father's second wife was Susan Lyles Lawrence.
Fisher attended the public grade school at Lyles Station and spent two years at Lincoln High School, an all-Black high school in Princeton, Indiana. After leaving high school, he worked on his father's farm at Lyles Station until he joined the U.S. Army in 1911. Fisher initially served with the 9th Cavalry Regiment and the 24th Infantry Regiment, segregated Black regiments. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and deployed to Europe, where he served in the 366th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Infantry Division, in France. After World War I, Fisher served in the 24th Infantry Regiment, was promoted to warrant officer in 1921, and was appointed second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve.
Fisher's military career included duty in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Hawaii, Mexico, and the Philippines before his appointment to the ROTC's military tactics unit at Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1936. Called "Cap" or Captain Fisher by the Wilberforce ROTC cadets, he retired from military duty in 1947. Fisher received the Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart from the United States and the Croix de Guerre with a gold star from the French government for actions in battle while serving as a second lieutenant during World War I.
He spent his final years in Xenia, Ohio, as a civilian employee at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He died on November 22, 1985. His remains are buried at Valley View Memorial Gardens near Xenia.
