| Notes |
- Frank quit school when he was 14, and went to work in the "Palace of Sweets Restaurant" as a "Soda Jerk". He later became a "Short Order Cook"
During WWII, he Joined the Army. His basic training was at Fort Knox, KY,
He trained at Fort Meade, MD then was shipped to England and then Germany.
He served with Patten in his 3rd Army, 10th Armored Division wearing a shoulder patch showing a Tiger with Tracks in mouth, representing the Tank
Destroyers.
He was a machine gunner on a Half-track. During the Battle of the Bulge. The crew parked the half-track and got out to look at a map. They spread the map out under a tree, and while they were under the tree the half-track got hit by an artillery shell. If they would have been in or under the half-track, they would have all been killed.
The tree they were under was also hit by an artillery shell. Frank rolled into a nearby ditch for safety, but a piece of shrapnel or metal from the shell hit Frank and cut the nerve or muscle that connects the leg to the hip.
He also had a piece of shrapnel lodged in his lung. It was winter time and the cold weather, plus laying in a cold wet ditch actually helped to save Franks life by slowing down the bleeding and helping to numb the pain. He eventually started crawling, until he reached an American First Aid Station, where he received medical attention.
While I have no personal knowledge as to what happened to the other men in the half=track, the fact that Frank had to crawl on the ground until he was found by an American Soldier that was able to take him somewhere to get medical attention, leads me to believe he "may" have been the only survivor.
According to Franks's brothers (who both retired from the Army), he never spoke to them about the day he was injured or what happened to the other soldiers.
He was eventually shipped back to the USA and was sent to the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulpher Springs West Virginia, which was being utilized as a military hospital at the time. He was there for treatment and rehabilitation.
They were never able to remove the shrapnel in his lung, but they did work on his leg. On Oct 14, 1945, a month before his 20th birthday, he was discharged from the hospital with a 100% disability that would remain with him for the rest of his life.
He returned to his home in Fredericksburg, PA, in Burks County, wearing leg braces that would enable him to walk.
These braces and the pain in his body that he would endure every day for the rest of his life, would be a constant reminder of the price he was willing to pay, for choosing to represent his country and defend the world from tyranny, during the Second World War.
Around December of 1945, or January of 1946, Frank took his uniform into a dry cleaners on 7th. street in Lebanon, PA. to have it cleaned and pressed.
While in the cleaners he began talking to a girl named Verna Hostetter. They started dating and eventually got married.
Frank’s parents, Charles and Emma, had a farm in Fredricksburg, PA. where they raised chickens and after Frank and Verna got married, they lived in a cottage that was located on a hill on their farm that was located next door to the Miller farm.
Due to Frank’s injury, he could not use his legs to drive a vehicle, the way other people did, so the Veterans Administration helped him by getting him a special vehicle
that had the controls on the column.
In spite of Frank having a 100% disability, he continued to work his entire life. At one time, while he was working in a factory making shoes, his braces gave him problems and he fell down. His boss criticized him and called him a "half a man" and fired him.
The emotional pain caused by other peoples cruelty was harder on Frank then the physical pain. Yet he was a survivor and never gave up on life or on wanting to help other people.
I honestly believe that Frank’s time on this earth, had a major positive effect on many other lives. In addition to the efforts and sacrifice that Frank made for his country
during Word War II, he was also the father of a number of children that passed on the concept of "wanting to help others."
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1925 - 1986 (61 years)
