Army Spc. Michael K. Frank

Died May 10, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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36, of Great Falls, Mont.; assigned to the 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.; died May 10 of injuries sustained in Baghdad, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during combat operations.

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Soldier with Montana ties dies in Iraq

The Associated Press

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A soldier with ties here died in Iraq after suffering wounds from an explosion.

Spc. Michael Frank, 36, died May 10 after an explosive device rocked the Humvee transporting him, Army spokesman Capt. John Bleile said. Two other soldiers were injured, Bleile said.

“He was extremely proud of what they were doing and what they were accomplishing over there,” said Dr. Timothy Frank, the soldier’s father and a civilian dentist at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls. The soldier’s mother is Diane Frank, a nurse practitioner in Portland, Ore.

Michael Frank graduated from Stevens High School in Rapid City, S.D. He was on the track team and twice represented his school in the annual South Dakota Knowledge Bowl.

After high school, he joined the Army and later enrolled at the University of Cincinnati, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. He worked in private investigation and in restaurant management. He rejoined the Army about a year ago and stayed at his father’s Great Falls home while the paperwork was processed.

“The country was at war and he said, ‘I’ve got this training. I want to go do my part,’” said Dr. Frank, who has lived in Great Falls since 1991. “He joined up with the idea of going to Iraq.”

Bleile described the soldier as an exemplary member of the Army.

Besides Frank’s parents, survivors include a brother, Brian, a civilian computer specialist in Afghanistan.

Services are planned in Cincinnati, Bleile said.

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UC grad, former local resident killed in Iraq

By Eileen Kelley

The (Cincinnati) Enquirer

An Army specialist who lived here for 13 years and graduated from the University of Cincinnati has died in Iraq.

Spec. Michael Frank, 36, died last week after the Humvee he was riding in struck an improvised explosive device.

He was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, N.C.

The son of a career military man, Dr. Timothy and Diane Frank, Michael Frank was born in Texas and lived in Maine, Tennessee, Washington, South Dakota and most recently Montana and Cincinnati.

After graduating from high school in Rapid City , S.D., Frank enlisted in the Army. He spent four years in Hawaii.

After his military stint, he moved to the childhood home of his parents in the Cincinnati area.

Michael Frank lived here from 1993 to 2005, when he decided it was time to go back into the service, his father said.

With the war in Iraq fully under way, Michael Frank told his father that young GIs and his country needed him.

“I’m very proud of him,” his father said. “He went in with a specific purpose. He knew the risks; we knew the risks.”

Frank is a 1998 graduate of the University of Cincinnati. He studied criminal justice and briefly worked for a private investigation firm.

For many years he worked as a manager at Pomodori Pizzeria in University Heights.

Michael Frank was stellar athlete who recently sent a letter to his nephew offering him tips to master Little League, his father said.

The elder Frank retired from the service after a long career in the Navy and Air Force in 1994.

Frank’s body is expected to arrive in Cincinnati on Friday.

There will be a military escort. Funeral plans were still being worked out, but Frank’s father said a burial is expected to take place Saturday at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Montgomery.

“There is no easy way to lose a child,” said Timothy Frank. “But there are a lot worse ways to lose a child.

“The country was at war and he said, ‘I’ve got this training. I want to go do my part,’“ his father said.

Frank is also survived by his mother, neonatal nurse practitioner Diane Frank of Portland, Ore., and his brother Brian Frank, who is a civilian computer specialist for a private company in Afghanistan.

Brian Frank previously was in the Army.

As the child in a military family — his father was a Navy pilot for 10 years, then a dentist in the Air Force before retiring — Michael Frank moved around the country.

Memorial donations may be sent to:

Tthe Family Readiness Group, a support group for the families of deployed soldiers at: Family Readiness Group, P.O. Box 4789, Helena, MT 59604.

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Funeral for soldier killed in Iraq

The Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ohio — A solider killed by an explosive device in Iraq was buried Saturday in the place he called home for 13 years.

Army Spc. Michael Frank, 36, was riding in a vehicle that struck an explosive device last week. His body was flown to Cincinnati on Friday.

Following a funeral Mass, Frank’s flag-draped coffin was taken by a military honor guard to a suburban Cincinnati cemetery for burial.

Frank’s father was a Navy pilot and a dentist. Frank was born in Texas and enlisted in the Army after completing high school in South Dakota. He moved to Cincinnati in 1993 and studied criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati.

Frank re-enlisted in 2005 and went to Iraq as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division.