Cliff Fanning was born on February 10, 1923, in Milford, Missouri. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on May 21, 1941, and completed basic training at MCB San Diego, California, in July 1941. His first assignment was as a guard at the Marine Barracks, Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, Washington, and then at Keyport, Washington, from August 1941 to March 1942. Pvt Fanning next served as a guard at the Marine Barracks, NAS Sitka, Alaska, from March 1942 to August 1943, and then back at the Marine Barracks, Puget Sound Navy Yard, from August to September 1943. He then completed additional training as a light machine gunner at Camp Elliott, California, from September to November 1943, followed by a transfer through several Marine Corps Replacement Battalions in the Pacific from November 1943 to May 1944. Pvt Fanning joined 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, as a rifleman in the Pacific in May 1944, and returned to the U.S. for treatment of a non-combat injury in August 1944. His final assignment was at Marine Barracks, NATTC Norman, Oklahoma, where he served from October 1944 until he was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps on February 28, 1945. Cliff Fanning died on June 24, 1978, and was buried at Arlington Memory Gardens in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.