Webmaster's Note: If you wish, please send your story to the editor of the "Watch on the Rhine" newsletter at ldball1@msn.com and it may be include in a future issue.

Private First Class John Frame was the Uncle Kathy Sokola never knew, having died in battle during World War II before Kathy was born. While growing up in Newark, Delaware, Kathy heard little or nothing about Uncle John. Perhaps it was too painful for her father to be reminded of his older brother being cut down in his prime years. With all of the other uncles, and aunts, and cousins, it was quite an effort to keep up with the family that she did know.

It is not known what sort of work Uncle John did before entering the military in his late twenties. We can’t know about his skills, his education, his friends, or even if he left a sweetheart behind. He almost became forgotten.

In the summer of 2001 Kathy’s brother, Eddie, passed away. Eddie was the last remaining occupant of the house in which Kathy grew up. While sorting through the belongings to be cleared in preparation for selling the house, Kathy gathered quite a collection of artifacts and developed a renewed interest in her family history in general, and in Uncle John in particular.

While the information uncovered remains limited, several significant facts have been documented. Regardless, Uncle John will be forgotten no more. World War II was a pivotal event in world history. It’s hard to imagine what liberties we’d experience in our lifetime, if any, were it not for the dispatching of U.S. Armed Forces to stop, and defeat the Third Reich before it was too late. Now Uncle John’s service portrait is proudly displayed in our home. We intend to preserve his memory.

John Lee Frame
Birth date: 28 September 1915
Birth place: Newark, Delaware
Death date: 23 January 1945
Place of death: Killed in action during the Colmar
Pocket Campaign, France
Burial site: Epinal American Cemetery, Epinal,
(Vosges) France

World War II Veteran:
Service Record;
Basic training: Camp Benning, Georgia
Served in North Africa
Invasion of Sicily
Invasion of Italy-wounded
Awards: Bronze Star
Purple Heart with 3 Oak leaf clusters
Combat Infantry Badge

“11 State Soldiers to Receive War Medals Posthumously”

Private Frame
“On 25 August 1944, Private Frame and an officer braved the fire of three tanks, four machine guns, and small arms at point-blank range that had killed or wounded 12 men, in order to rescue one of the casualties near ***, France. When Private Frame, who had crawled approximately 100 yards to the wounded man, found himself unable to evacuate the casualty alone, the officer came to his assistance and completed the act of mercy.”
“James Frame of the Creek Road, near Newark, will receive his son, Private Frame’s medal.”
(Journal-Every Evening, Wilmington, Delaware, 7 August 1945)

Private First Class John Frame
Killed in the “Colmar Pocket” Campaign
January 23, 1945


EPINAL AMERICAN CEMETERY & MEMORIAL
Epinal, France

Private First Class, U.S. Army

Subject: Blue & White Badge (Patch?)

Comments: Hi, my granddad was in the 3rd Division, 7th Infantry, Cannon Company in WWII. My granddad landed in Fedala and was captured in Sicily. I am writing a book about his war experience and was wondering if everyone in the 3rd Division wore the blue and white badge representing the 3rd Division, or was it just high ranks?
I seem to come across some pictures with people wearing it and others not. I was hoping you might know. Thanks!
Crystal