Name: Phillip Edward Frank, LCPL, USMC
Local address: Cliffwood Beach, NJ
Phillip was born July 5, 1983 in Red Bank, NJ to Roy and Georgette Frank, their second and last child. Growing up in Cliffwood Beach, he was a 2002 graduate of Matawan High School.
On September 11, 2001, he witnessed terrorists fly the 2nd aircraft into the World Trade Center and decided to join the US Marines in response, to “help his country and help his family and help me, to make the world safer for us,” according to his mother.
After moving to Illinois that fall, he enlisted and upon completing basic training at Parris Island and the advanced School of Infantry, was assigned to the storied 2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment, 1st Marine Division, whose exploits in WWII, Korea and Vietnam are legendary. The unit was deployed to Fallujah, Iraq in March 2004 and took part in Operation Vigilant Resolve.
On March 31, 2004, Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah attacked a convoy containing four American private military contractors conducting delivery of food for the city. Ambushed by a mob and killed by gunfire and a grenade throw into their vehicle, their bodies were then set ablaze, and their corpses were dragged through the streets before being hung over a bridge crossing the Euphrates. The insurgents provided photos of this to news agencies, causing a great outrage in the United States. The US military was sent to respond.
On April 8, 2004, a convoy in which LCPL Frank was riding was ambushed with gunfire and rocket propelled grenades, killing him. His body was returned to the United States and is buried in the All Saints Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleum, Des Plaines, Il. He is survived by his parents, older sister Cyndi, and his wife of less than a year, Keri Johnson Frank.
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