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| Chelsea with Grandpa Frank from Chapter 1 (with belt buckle on side) |
My father probably told this story for the first time in July 2013, when he was 88 years old and in his last year. He had almost never talked about his experiences during the war. I was helping him get dressed after a doctor’s appointment and was kidding him about how he had always worn his belt buckle off to his left side. He had done so ever since any of us could remember.
He replied that he had put his buckle that way to remember a friend who had been killed on Leyte. He could not recall his friend's name, but said that he did not have any family back home and they had looked out for each other in the jungle. His friend had saved his life by shooting a Japanese soldier before the soldier could shoot him. That evening his friend had helped him shave his face in their foxhole. The next day while crossing a ridge Franklin found that his friend had been captured by the enemy, and then tortured, killed, and cannibalized.
I have always been proud to be a "War Baby" never, never a baby boomer thank God! I was born when my Father Franklin E. Was still flying his missions over Rumanian oil fields. I am doubly proud now after having read Bob's Franklin war story. Our 2 Frankins make us all proud and the belt buckle story makes us cry over the horrors of war.
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