Frank was the oldest child of Frank C. Pierce and Mabel L. Lukine. He served in the US Army during World War II and the Korean War. After retiring from the military, Frank worked for the Illinois Central Railroad (as did my father). He died at his home in Homewood (Cook County), Illinois on the 13 Feb 1958. His wife Thelma (nee Kern)and son Keith survived him.
NEWS ARTICLE: entitled "HE CARRIES FIGHT TO REDS"; printed in local Chicago newspaper; circa December 1950.
HE CARRIES FIGHT TO REDS
At an advanced post in South Korea - the men who served under him called him "Fierce Pierce", but the North Koreans probably call him every dirty name they can think of.
And that is just the way this stocky, little, ruddy-faced hell on wheels wants it.
He is Major Benjamin F. Pierce, who is 37 and calls Riverdale, the Chicago suburb, his home.
According to the army, he is a combat engineer but he has his own ideas about how to fight this war.
His favorite past time is leading patrols in places he is sure he will flush a covey of North Koreans.
Smiles like Teddy Pierce who smiles like Teddy Roosevelt and shoots like Daniel Boone, totes along either a Browning Automatic Rifle or one of those nasty little squirt guns (hand machine guns).
For 50 days he has been in the front lines without rest. He won't ask any man in his outfit to go where he won't - and he goes everywhere.
While he has been slugging it out with the invaders from the north; he personally has taken about 15 of them prisoners.
There isn't a man in his outfit who wouldn't follow him to hell.
There isn't a man whose voice grows softer than his when he talks about his wife and child and friends back in Riverdale. Pierce has been shot at more times than he bothers to count, and he has been so close to death that he could slap it in the face.
Narrow Escape Told
But one of the narrowest escapes he remembers best is the time he probably was saved by a South Korean woman refugee.
Pierce and some of his men were getting ready for a patrol one evening. They were checking their guns before crossing a river to poke around in a village over a hill. They were almost ready to leave when a sergeant was told a woman was floundering in the river.
He fished her out and brought her to the Major. Through an interpreter she told him a large force of North Koreans with machine guns and automatic rifles was in the village waiting for the Americans to come nosing around.
"We could have been cut to pieces before we could have shaken the water out of our eyes", Pierce said.
He relayed this information to his regimental commander, Col. Peter Hyzer of Rockford, Ill. The colonel called back for artillery fire on the village.
'Like Ducks in a Barrel '
"Boy it was a field day", Pierce said.
"We potted them like ducks in a little barrel". The artillery fire drove the North Koreans out of the village into the river and into the guns of Pierce and his men.
When that was properly disposed of, Pierce saw to it that the little refugee woman was well fed and got first class transportation to Pusan.
Later, during a rest period, one of his men said: "He is the best C. O. in the army. He is a fighting son - well, if it's going in the paper, say Son of a Gun".
NEWS ARTICLE: entitled "HE CARRIES FIGHT TO REDS"; printed in local Chicago newspaper; circa December 1950.
HE CARRIES FIGHT TO REDS
At an advanced post in South Korea - the men who served under him called him "Fierce Pierce", but the North Koreans probably call him every dirty name they can think of.
And that is just the way this stocky, little, ruddy-faced hell on wheels wants it.
He is Major Benjamin F. Pierce, who is 37 and calls Riverdale, the Chicago suburb, his home.
According to the army, he is a combat engineer but he has his own ideas about how to fight this war.
His favorite past time is leading patrols in places he is sure he will flush a covey of North Koreans.
Smiles like Teddy Pierce who smiles like Teddy Roosevelt and shoots like Daniel Boone, totes along either a Browning Automatic Rifle or one of those nasty little squirt guns (hand machine guns).
For 50 days he has been in the front lines without rest. He won't ask any man in his outfit to go where he won't - and he goes everywhere.
While he has been slugging it out with the invaders from the north; he personally has taken about 15 of them prisoners.
There isn't a man in his outfit who wouldn't follow him to hell.
There isn't a man whose voice grows softer than his when he talks about his wife and child and friends back in Riverdale. Pierce has been shot at more times than he bothers to count, and he has been so close to death that he could slap it in the face.
Narrow Escape Told
But one of the narrowest escapes he remembers best is the time he probably was saved by a South Korean woman refugee.
Pierce and some of his men were getting ready for a patrol one evening. They were checking their guns before crossing a river to poke around in a village over a hill. They were almost ready to leave when a sergeant was told a woman was floundering in the river.
He fished her out and brought her to the Major. Through an interpreter she told him a large force of North Koreans with machine guns and automatic rifles was in the village waiting for the Americans to come nosing around.
"We could have been cut to pieces before we could have shaken the water out of our eyes", Pierce said.
He relayed this information to his regimental commander, Col. Peter Hyzer of Rockford, Ill. The colonel called back for artillery fire on the village.
'Like Ducks in a Barrel '
"Boy it was a field day", Pierce said.
"We potted them like ducks in a little barrel". The artillery fire drove the North Koreans out of the village into the river and into the guns of Pierce and his men.
When that was properly disposed of, Pierce saw to it that the little refugee woman was well fed and got first class transportation to Pusan.
Later, during a rest period, one of his men said: "He is the best C. O. in the army. He is a fighting son - well, if it's going in the paper, say Son of a Gun".
Frank was the oldest child of Frank C. Pierce and Mabel L. Lukine. He served in the US Army during World War II and the Korean War. After retiring from the military, Frank worked for the Illinois Central Railroad (as did my father). He died at his home in Homewood (Cook County), Illinois on the 13 Feb 1958. His wife Thelma (nee Kern)and son Keith survived him.
NEWS ARTICLE: entitled "HE CARRIES FIGHT TO REDS"; printed in local Chicago newspaper; circa December 1950.
HE CARRIES FIGHT TO REDS
At an advanced post in South Korea - the men who served under him called him "Fierce Pierce", but the North Koreans probably call him every dirty name they can think of.
And that is just the way this stocky, little, ruddy-faced hell on wheels wants it.
He is Major Benjamin F. Pierce, who is 37 and calls Riverdale, the Chicago suburb, his home.
According to the army, he is a combat engineer but he has his own ideas about how to fight this war.
His favorite past time is leading patrols in places he is sure he will flush a covey of North Koreans.
Smiles like Teddy Pierce who smiles like Teddy Roosevelt and shoots like Daniel Boone, totes along either a Browning Automatic Rifle or one of those nasty little squirt guns (hand machine guns).
For 50 days he has been in the front lines without rest. He won't ask any man in his outfit to go where he won't - and he goes everywhere.
While he has been slugging it out with the invaders from the north; he personally has taken about 15 of them prisoners.
There isn't a man in his outfit who wouldn't follow him to hell.
There isn't a man whose voice grows softer than his when he talks about his wife and child and friends back in Riverdale. Pierce has been shot at more times than he bothers to count, and he has been so close to death that he could slap it in the face.
Narrow Escape Told
But one of the narrowest escapes he remembers best is the time he probably was saved by a South Korean woman refugee.
Pierce and some of his men were getting ready for a patrol one evening. They were checking their guns before crossing a river to poke around in a village over a hill. They were almost ready to leave when a sergeant was told a woman was floundering in the river.
He fished her out and brought her to the Major. Through an interpreter she told him a large force of North Koreans with machine guns and automatic rifles was in the village waiting for the Americans to come nosing around.
"We could have been cut to pieces before we could have shaken the water out of our eyes", Pierce said.
He relayed this information to his regimental commander, Col. Peter Hyzer of Rockford, Ill. The colonel called back for artillery fire on the village.
'Like Ducks in a Barrel '
"Boy it was a field day", Pierce said.
"We potted them like ducks in a little barrel". The artillery fire drove the North Koreans out of the village into the river and into the guns of Pierce and his men.
When that was properly disposed of, Pierce saw to it that the little refugee woman was well fed and got first class transportation to Pusan.
Later, during a rest period, one of his men said: "He is the best C. O. in the army. He is a fighting son - well, if it's going in the paper, say Son of a Gun".
NEWS ARTICLE: entitled "HE CARRIES FIGHT TO REDS"; printed in local Chicago newspaper; circa December 1950.
HE CARRIES FIGHT TO REDS
At an advanced post in South Korea - the men who served under him called him "Fierce Pierce", but the North Koreans probably call him every dirty name they can think of.
And that is just the way this stocky, little, ruddy-faced hell on wheels wants it.
He is Major Benjamin F. Pierce, who is 37 and calls Riverdale, the Chicago suburb, his home.
According to the army, he is a combat engineer but he has his own ideas about how to fight this war.
His favorite past time is leading patrols in places he is sure he will flush a covey of North Koreans.
Smiles like Teddy Pierce who smiles like Teddy Roosevelt and shoots like Daniel Boone, totes along either a Browning Automatic Rifle or one of those nasty little squirt guns (hand machine guns).
For 50 days he has been in the front lines without rest. He won't ask any man in his outfit to go where he won't - and he goes everywhere.
While he has been slugging it out with the invaders from the north; he personally has taken about 15 of them prisoners.
There isn't a man in his outfit who wouldn't follow him to hell.
There isn't a man whose voice grows softer than his when he talks about his wife and child and friends back in Riverdale. Pierce has been shot at more times than he bothers to count, and he has been so close to death that he could slap it in the face.
Narrow Escape Told
But one of the narrowest escapes he remembers best is the time he probably was saved by a South Korean woman refugee.
Pierce and some of his men were getting ready for a patrol one evening. They were checking their guns before crossing a river to poke around in a village over a hill. They were almost ready to leave when a sergeant was told a woman was floundering in the river.
He fished her out and brought her to the Major. Through an interpreter she told him a large force of North Koreans with machine guns and automatic rifles was in the village waiting for the Americans to come nosing around.
"We could have been cut to pieces before we could have shaken the water out of our eyes", Pierce said.
He relayed this information to his regimental commander, Col. Peter Hyzer of Rockford, Ill. The colonel called back for artillery fire on the village.
'Like Ducks in a Barrel '
"Boy it was a field day", Pierce said.
"We potted them like ducks in a little barrel". The artillery fire drove the North Koreans out of the village into the river and into the guns of Pierce and his men.
When that was properly disposed of, Pierce saw to it that the little refugee woman was well fed and got first class transportation to Pusan.
Later, during a rest period, one of his men said: "He is the best C. O. in the army. He is a fighting son - well, if it's going in the paper, say Son of a Gun".
Inscription
Lt Col 3 Engineers C BN; World War II Korea; SS-BSM-AM
Gravesite Details
~ PLEASE DO NOT COPY DOCUMENTS or PHOTOS. DO NOT POST TO ANY WEBSITE! ASK FOR PERMISSION, FIRST. THANK YOU! ~
