Frank Kania turns 100 years old on August 2nd.
Frank is a guy you would like to know. He lives at Emeritus of Hoffman Estates and is very active for his age. On Tuesdays and Thursdays he gathers around the poker table to play a friendly game of Texas Hold-em. Most of his life, he was a butcher and he served honorably in New Guinea during WWII.
Frank recounts this to me.
"I was a crane operator for part of my time in New Guinea. One day a Major met me at lunch and told m that tomorrow I would be trained in crane operation. I was trained for 1/2 a day and then the Sargent told
me that I was good to go, just take it slow at the beginning. My job was to unload cargo from supply ships that came into port.
I was later in charge of a camp that housed B-24 pilots who went out at night for Japanese bombing missions and reconnaissance missions. The bomber group worked up the eastern shore of the Australian coast, and the Philippines, searching out Japanese submarines. Since in civilian life, I was a butcher, I became a butcher in the service.
In 1945, I came into the Philippines at Leyte Gulf for the biggest naval battles of WWII. I helped load supplies for the upcoming invasion of the Japanese mainland. The ammunition for the battle was as far as the eye could see and the tanks were piled up and ready to go.
They were ready for the invasion, but luckily two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, ending the war before the invasion. I served in the Army Air Corp for 3 and 1/2 years.
I was going to meet his brother Johnny on leave but Johnny was Killed In Action at Iwo Jima. Johnny was a Staff Sargent in the army. He was killed by a sniper according to his two buddies of Johnny's in the Army.
The scariest moment in the war was when the Japanese invaded my Air Force base at dusk. One night, at dusk, all of a sudden, a bunch of Japanese planes came over the horizon. They bombed the airport for three days. It was a sneak attack. Luckily there were infantry that shot down many of the planes. I would not be alive today without the infantry guarding the air base in New Guinea."
On August 2nd, 2012, Frank turns 100 years old.