Born at Fort Ringgold, Texas, in 1877, to Edmond G. Fechet, his military experience began with his youth as an Army Infantry officer's son living at various frontier stations in the West. He left the University of Nebraska in 1898 in his third year as a mechanical engineering student to serve as an enlisted man in the Spanish–American War. Wounded seriously at San Juan Hill in Cuba, Fechet recovered and applied for a commission. Serving as a sergeant in Troop D, 6th Cavalry, in the Philippines, Fechet was commissioned in December 1900 with date if rank from July 1, and for the next six years served in many cavalry assignments, including service in Hawaii, against the insurgents in the Philippines, and on the Punitive Expedition into Mexico. In 1912, as a captain in the 4th Cavalry, Fechet was assigned to duty at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.