Frank grew up in Lititz, Pa., a Pennsylvania Dutch community in Lancaster County, where he lived until he enlisted in the Army in the mid 1950s. By serving at the U.S. Army Ammunition Depot on Okinawa for two and one-half years, Frank saw the places where some of the fiercest battles of World War 2 were fought.           

 

In the early 1960s, after being honorably discharged, Frank  accepted an appointment in the Finance Branch of the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C. This was his initial appointment into Federal Civil Service, which was to last until his retirement in the early 1990s. It was in Washington, D.C. that he married his wife, Charlotte, and their three children, David, Donna and Dennis, were born.

 

In the early 1960s his mother, Mildred, married Peter Demers, a man she had met while living in Clearwater, Florida. On one of their many visits to Washington, D.C., Frank and his wife, Charlotte, took his stepfather, Peter, to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Virginia. It was here Peter told Frank and Charlotte about losing his only child, George, when the B-29 on which he was a gunner, was shot down in Tokyo Bay. Peter didn’t know many details of the circumstances of that fateful day, May 24, 1945, but he did say that he attended the services at the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky when the crew was reburied in a group grave in their final resting place. Frank promised his stepfather then he would never let his stepbrother, George, be forgotten. During the research for the book, he became acquainted with seven families who had also lost loved ones on the same B-29 as George Demers.

 

After twelve years with the National Labor Relations Board, Frank transferred to the U.S. Department of Justice/Federal Bureau of Prisons at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. After transferring to the Federal Correctional Institution at Oxford, Wisconsin; the Northeast Regional Office at Philadelphia; the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island, California; the Federal Prison Camp at Boron, California and in the early 1980s, the U.S. Penitentiary at Lompoc, California where he retired as Business Manager of Federal Prison Industries.        

 

Since their retirement in the early 1990s, Frank and Charlotte have lived in Yelm, Washington and Lompoc, California and traveled in their fifth wheel trailer. He has had some temporary employment opportunities since his retirement that he has enjoyed very much. One opportunity was working at the Santa Barbara County Jail for a six-month period. Another was with the City of Lompoc Parks and Recreation Department working as Campground Host at River Park. And still another was working in the Santa Maria office of the Census Bureau on Census 2000.

 

In recent years, “Z Square 7, A B-29 True Story” has had all his time, energy and interest. He has met some wonderful people.... many B-29 veterans, relatives of other downed airmen, and veterans of other conflicts. Lt “Hap” Halloran; Bill Copeland, nephew of Lt Robert Copeland; Doug Caffey; and Sallyann Wagoner, owner of the largest B-29 organization on the internet, are just a few of the resource persons who were a great inspiration.