By Tataboline Brant
The Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News
Oct. 20, 2005
A Fairbanks-based soldier was killed Tuesday in Iraq -- the
first member of the 172nd Stryker Brigade to die in combat since the
3,800-person unit left Alaska this fall.
Army Spc. Lucas Frantz,
22, was shot by a sniper while patrolling with his platoon in Mosul,
according to Army officials. His wife said in an emotional telephone
interview Wednesday from the small Kansas town where she and her
husband are from that Frantz was killed on his birthday.
"I
never wanted him to go over," Kelly Frantz said, fighting tears. "I was
so scared. He always reassured me it was going to be fine. ... He
believed in what they were doing. ... I just was sure he was coming
home to me."
Frantz, an infantryman and Stryker vehicle
commander, had been stationed at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks since
2003. He joined the Army in 2003, a year after graduating from high
school in Tonganoxie, Kan.
The news of his death sent shock
waves through the web of military families associated with the 172nd
and through Tonganoxie, where both Kelly and Lucas Frantz grew up.
Mark
Elston, Frantz's high school football coach, said many people in
Tonganoxie learned of the death Tuesday, when uniformed military
officers visited a relative of Frantz's who worked at the junior high.
It didn't take long for the news to spread through the community of
about 3,100 in the heart of Kansas between Kansas City and Topeka.
"By
2 o'clock all the flags in town were at half-mast," Elston said. "The
newspaper that comes out on Wednesday had stopped and was redoing the
entire paper because of the news. It was especially disturbing for us
folks that work with kids every day. He was such a good kid, you wonder
why it has to happen."
Elston said that when he heard about
Frantz, he immediately thought back to the first high school football
game Frantz played in after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Everyone in attendance held hands for a moment of silence before the
game started, he said. Frantz by that point was already considering
joining the military, Elston said.
"The guy I was holding
hands with was Lucas," the coach said. "I just remember looking at him
and thinking, Lord, here's an 18-year-old kid that might be defending
my country. I was looking to him for strength. ... He had a tremendous
heart, tremendous determination and a tremendous desire to lead."
Frantz
and his wife moved to Fort Wainwright in October 2003, five months
after joining the Army. The couple, who met at a grocery store where
they both worked, married shortly before that after dating for three
years.
"We were soul mates," said Kelly, 23.
The Stryker
brigade started shipping out for the desert from posts in Anchorage and
Fairbanks in August. The unit arrived in Iraq in early September,
replacing a Washington-based Stryker brigade that had lost more than 30
people during its yearlong tour there. Kelly moved back with her family
in Tonganoxie after her husband was deployed.
The Strykers are eight-wheeled, armored combat vehicles new to the military and are used to transport troops on the battlefield.
Several
of the soldiers in the Alaska Stryker unit have been wounded in the
last two months, some seriously. The sniper attack that killed Frantz
occurred Tuesday around 11:40 a.m. Iraq time, according to a statement
Wednesday from Army Alaska spokesman Maj. Kirk Gohlke.
Gohlke
said Frantz's platoon was conducting a cordon and search operation in
an area of Mosul known as "Bedrock." Frantz was mounted in his Stryker
vehicle, protecting the dismounted members of his platoon, when he was
shot. His wife said she was told he died instantly.
No other American soldiers were wounded.
Kelly Frantz said one of her husband's superiors, a member of his platoon, called her from Iraq on Wednesday.
"They're not taking it good at all," she said. "They were all one big family and they are hurting pretty bad right now."
American
Forces Press Service published an online report Tuesday about the
attack but did not name the soldier killed. The article was posted to
Stryker Brigade News, a popular Web site for military families that
includes a discussion board.
Worried relatives and spouses immediately wrote into the site's discussion board:
"I
am coming unglued at the seams to hear that a soldier was killed today
and not knowing if it is my son or not," wrote one person, identified
as "twoums." "We are located in Texas but our son was stationed at Fort
Wainwright. He is with C Co., 1-17th Infantry. I know it says 24 hours
after notifying the next of kin, information is then released but how
long, especially if we aren't located in Alaska, would it take for the
information to reach the next of kin?"
Another person,
identified as "423strykergf," wrote from Seattle: "i talked to my honey
about it earlier today ... i found out about it from him first but he
didnt have too many details. i dont know if the soldier is from
wainwright or rich but my bf was pretty shaken up about it even tho he
didnt know the guy. they shut off the phones tho until the family is
notified. god bless the soldier and prayers for his family and loved
ones"
The Army does not release names of soldiers killed in
action until 24 hours after the family has been notified. That waiting
period expired around 3 p.m. Wednesday.
In the Army's official statement, soldiers who knew Frantz said he would be sorely missed.
"He
was the biggest, strongest guy I ever knew," said Spc. Toby Alsip, who
served in the same squad as Frantz. "He was always helping others fix
things -- anything -- he could fix it."
"Spc. Frantz was the
kind of guy who would always help you out," his platoon leader, 1st Lt.
Randy Lewis, said in the statement. "He would never ask you for help,
no matter what, but he was always helping others."
"He was good at everything he did," Kelly Frantz said, "being a husband, being a soldier, being a son."
At
least 1,986 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning
of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count,
including three soldiers in the U.S. Army Task Force Liberty 42nd
Infantry Division combat patrol who were killed by a roadside bomb in
northern Iraq, the military said today.
"I still believe in what
they're doing over there," Kelly Frantz said. "I'm so proud to be his
wife. He fought for what he believed in. He never stopped fighting. ...
I just want everybody to know not to forget about those guys over
there."
Official memorial services have not been scheduled yet,
the family said. Elston said Frantz's football jersey, No. 69, is going
to be retired in a ceremony before a football game Friday night in
Tonganoxie.
"It will hang in our locker room for as long as I'm the coach," he said.
