When Frank and his wife, Donna moved to Marion in 1957, they were the parents of two children. Douglas, who is now married to Jeralyn and living in Chesterfield, Missouri and Patricia Kay, now married to Brian Sanders and living in Florissant, Missouri. There are now five grand-children and eight great-grandchildren.
Both of their children graduated from the Marion school system. All of this is generally known of Frank, who is seen around town quite a lot partaking of his usual activities of drinking coffee at the KB roundtable on East Main Street, seeing friends at Kroger, exercising at Vigiano’s and teaching a Bible study class at Marion First Methodist Church which he has done for over 50 years.
As Paul Harvey says, “Now for the rest of the story.”
Frank Thompson was born near Dix, Illinois, out in the country. Frank says he was so far out in the country that air had to be pumped in. His parents were hard working “salt of the earth types.” His father scratched a living out of 62 acres, of which 20 were tillable and supplemented his income by carrying the mail.
Frank’s mother died of uremic poisoning when Frank was but six years of age and as a result Frank has little memory of his mother. Three years later his father remarried and his “step mother” did not try to raise him, leaving this to his father.
Frank’s elementary education took place less than 600 feet from his residence in a one room school that housed about 15 students in 8 grades. He then attended high school in Dix for two years, graduating from high school two years later in Mr. Vernon.
According to Frank, he was not a great student but he did have a talent for retaining things and in the 8th grade, he was awarded a scholarship that would pay his fees, tuition and books. He took the certificate home and thought no more about it. He did have the ambition to be a forester, but the only school at that time was in Oregon and he knew he could not go there. Frank also thought about being an author but there was no one to help him with this ambition.
In 1937, when he got out of high school, our nation was in the depths of a depression and in January, 1938 he found himself in a business college in Chillicothe, MO. which he paid for by selling a cow and borrowing $350. He roomed with a fellow he had met on the train to Chillicothe by paying $4.50 for room and board and he says he “scrounged” for lunch.
The business college guaranteed job placement upon graduation and he was awarded a job with a construction company in St. Louis, where the young graduate was paid $12 a week for answering the phone. This job did not last long and he worked another job before landing a job with Viking Freight with help from a friend.
Along the way Frank and a friend met two girls at the “Highlands” in St. Louis and his friend dated Donna, who was the girl Frank really wanted. The Peacetime draft which was instituted just prior to our country’s involvement in World War II found Frank’s friend and so he began seeing Donna.
Frank was at work on Sunday, December 7, 1941, when the U.S.A. naval base at Pearl Harbor was bombed and he realized that he would be going into the service, but he also knew he did not want the army. In August, 1942 his draft number was almost up and his boss let him have time off to apply for the Naval Air Corps who had just lessened their academic requirements to high school graduates.
The testing to enter the Naval Air Corps was very stringent. Out of 120 applicants, only 20 were accepted and Frank was in the 20. He was sworn in on Sept. 2, 1942 but his entry into the service was delayed until January, 1943. He needed each day of that time as he had been ordered to have his teeth repaired and he also had to dispose of his personal belongings including his automobile. During this time he also found time to become engaged to Donna, but they could not get married as the Navy was only taking single men.
On Jan. 1, 1943 Frank entered upon the greatest adventure of a lifetime. They were put on a train and had no idea where they were headed. The group ended up at Murray State College in Kentucky, and his life became a whirlwind of activity. He accomplished physical feats he had never dreamed of. He also discovered he was well suited for academic pursuits as he became one of the top five cadets and they were offered jobs as “navigators” as the Navy had a pressing need for this skill and they were also promised eventual training as aviators. The entire group of five accepted the deal and he was on his way to Hollywood, Florida and his first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean.
Frank says the physical activity was much tougher there than at Murray. However, by this time he was in top physical condition. The academics were much tougher too, and Frank had discovered that he had a natural talent for math and other studies which he referred to as “duck soup.”
In July they commenced flight training, which was daunting since Frank had never been in an airplane. On August 18, 1943 Frank and another 200 cadets were commissioned Ensigns in the U.S. Navy.
The cadet requirement of being single did not apply to Ensigns so Frank’s first order of business upon arrival in St. Louis was to make Donna Stulken Mrs. Frank Thompson. This was accomplished Aug. 21, at the Shaw Avenue Methodist Church.
Frank only had the luxury of a few days leave and by the first of September he would be on a train headed for San Diego, California leaving his new bride behind. He ended up on North Island and was placed in a squadron designated VP-81, a newly formed PBY-5A group.
The PBY was an amphibious patrol plane built by Consolidated Aircraft Company. Frank described the plane as “ungainly” 63 feet long, 18 feet high with a wing span of 104 feet. The PBY had two engines and could fly at 110 miles per hour. The planes were armed with several machine guns and could carry two 500 pound bombs under the wings. The usual compliment of personnel was eight, including pilot, co-pilot, extra pilot, navigator (who frequently filled in as an extra pilot), 3 gunners, engineer and radio operator. The planes were to be painted flat black and their missions would be during night time only.
Frank was soon able to bring his bride to San Diego and they enjoyed about two months together, fitted in with his training regimen. They made many friends among the other Ensigns and their wives.
In November their orders came and they had to say tearful goodbye and all the wives were on trains headed east.
Frank, along with some other officers and men were assigned to accompany their equipment aboard a new aircraft carrier headed to Hawaii. A couple of weeks after Thanksgiving Day, the carrier arrived at Hawaii. Frank, being one of the few, not experiencing seasickness was in for quite a voyage.
This was also Frank’s introduction to the destruction of war as some of the damage still existed at Pearl Harbor and he could clearly see the battleship Arizona, remembering the 2500 men who met their death.
The squadron spent a few weeks in Hawaii and Frank was favorably impressed with the island. On Dec 12, 1943 the squadron began taking off for secret destinations in a southwest direction. The trip was in three legs, with the third and last being the longest of some 1200 miles which took almost eleven hours. They landed in the Fiji Islands which Frank found to be less than picturesque as shown in the movies.
Their quarters were in thatched roof huts and they had to sleep in mosquito nets. The next day they flew another 700 miles to Espiritu Santos to a small detachment under the command of Admiral Bull Halsey. They were there introduced to enemy attacks as the Japanese were not at all happy with the arrival of the U.S. soldiers and equipment.
Their flights were without incident and eventually they all landed at Henderson Field on the island of Guadalcanal, and Frank’s first real experience with war. Guadalcanal was the site of the first real combat conducted by the Marine Corps. The island had cost many American lives to occupy.
The runway itself was all steel matting as the mud was ever present with the daily tropical rains. Since they were not the first PBY squadrons to arrive here, the facilities were not all that bad with a library of sorts, a medical unit, an outdoor theatre, maintenance hangars and huts for the 300 or so personnel and these were scattered about.
The nights were difficult to adjust to as the jungle sounds were nerve wracking. There were nearby foxholes as an enemy plane dubbed “Washing Machine Charlie” was known to fly over at irregular intervals and with quick spurts of fire, forced the men into the holes for their protection.
Frank did not get into action until January, 1944 when nine missions were flown.
Early in February, the squadron moved to Munda, New Georgia after the Marines had taken over the airfield. More patrols followed and Frank found himself flying over more islands and landing on some strange ones when their plane would have experienced mechanical problems. Additionally Frank was assigned a patrol on a PT boat as part of their mission. Their job was to alert PT boats that a Japanese barge was sighted so the boats could destroy the barge. On one of his PT missions their boat hit a submerged object and bent a propeller which caused them to move very slowly on half power but they made it back safely.
After several missions and a lot of exciting time, part of the squadron was given R & R in Auckland, New Zealand which was quite an experience. Their housing on R & R was in a mansion which had been loaned to the Red Cross, allowing for an exciting time away from the action.
Back to the war and in April they were on about ten missions of varied types. They also rescued some downed pilots and did some convoy escorting. This continued on into July when they got orders and found the Navy was sending the navigators back to the States for flight training. Frank had been doing some of the piloting of the PBY before this time.
After much flying and island hopping, including a stay at Hawaii, the second week of August, 1944, found Frank Thompson arriving at Lambert Field, St. Louis. He rode a bus to downtown, got a shave and a haircut and took a taxi to see his bride, Donna. The welcome of course, was memorable, and Frank said that he and Donna just lazed around for awhile.
The rest of his time in the service was spent in Florida, where Donna was able to accompany him.
Alter the war ended, due to Frank’s points he received while overseas, he was granted a discharge December 31, 1945 and he and his wife returned to her parents’ home in St. Louis.
Frank was determined to take some time off and just take it easy but his former boss soon phoned and asked for him to return to his old job the next day and he did…and the rest is history.
Frank and Donna had a good life in St. Louis and then later, spent many years here in Marion. Frank’s wife, Donna, passed away on Friday, January 23, 2004. Donna was buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Dix, Illinois, where Frank’s parents are also buried. When the Lord calls him, he too will be buried in Dix alongside Donna, his wife of over 60 years.
(Marion’s Heroes, the Frank Thompson Story, written by Harry C. Boyd, published in Marion Living Magazine, November 2007)