Fred Tenore was born in Newark, New Jersey, on July 7, 1921, to Italian immigrant parents. One of seven children, he grew up during the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties and the hardships of the Great Depression. Before entering military service, he worked as a laborer and as a presser in a garment factory. Expecting that he would soon be drafted, Fred chose to enlist in the U.S. Army on May 26, 1941, at only nineteen years of age. 

Assigned to the 89th Field Artillery Battalion of the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks in the Territory of Hawaii, Fred believed he had won the lottery by being stationed in what seemed like paradise. That illusion ended abruptly on December 7, 1941, when Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor and strafed military installations across Oahu. From that day forward, Fred's service would be defined by war. As a proud member of the division known as "Tropic Lightning," he first helped defend the Hawaiian Islands against further attack before undergoing intensive jungle warfare training in preparation for offensive operations in the Pacific. 

Leaving Hawaii in November 1942, Fred sailed west to begin the Central Pacific Campaign. After staging in New Caledonia, his first combat came on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. From there, the 25th Infantry Division continued its island-hopping campaign through the Solomons, the Admiralty Islands, and ultimately the Philippines.