No Regrets: Frank Kravetz’s Story

Townhall.com ^ | November 6, 2011 | Paul Kengor

[Kaslin]

Editor’s note: A version of this article first appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

“Just existing became what was important,” says 87-year-old Frank Kravetz of Pittsburgh, captive of the “hell-hole” that was Nuremberg Prison Camp. “Yet even as I struggled with the day-to-day sadness and despair, I never once had any regrets that I signed up to serve.”

An extended tour of Nazi camps as a wounded POW scratching for survival wasn’t what Frank had in mind when he signed up to serve his country in World War II. He refused his parents’ wishes to stay home; they already had two sons overseas. Frank was eager to fight for the freedom his Slovakian parents had secured in America. It was the least he could do.

Francis Albert Kravetz was born October 25, 1923, in East Pittsburgh, near the Westinghouse plant that provided income and aspiration for an entire community. Every morning he shoveled soot that drifted onto the porch from the steel mill. He lived a happy life. But then war came. Frank enlisted in the Army Air Corps. If he was going to help Uncle Sam beat the Nazis, he would do it from an airplane—and he did it very well, as a tail-gunner.

Frank’s life as a soldier took a dramatic turn on November 2, 1944 in a bomb-run over Germany. He crammed into the tail of a B-17, wedged inside a flak jacket. The target was Merseberg, a major industrial area. He flew amid an air armada of 500 heavy bombers—each carrying eighteen 250-pound “general purpose” bombs—escorted by 900 fighter planes.

[mongo141]

And then we have Jimmy Carter jr in the white hut, who absolutely wouldn’t do any thing to defend himself or the country except for money.

[PAR35]

He was a POW for about 6 months. Some of the Brits had almost 6 years. And compared to the allies captured by the Japs, he had it fairly easy.

[ryderann]

As gawd-awful as it was, the Germans were a civilized people. The muslims are not.

[Kaslin]

Are you trying to minimize his service for our country?

[PAR35]

Trying to add some perspective. The story does him a disservice.

[billorites]

An old family friend who I saw often while growing up had a similar story. He was still a teenager when shot down over Germany where he was interned for the duration. After liberation he was able to write his family, tell them what he had been through, etc. However, he and his comrades were not immediately repatriated, but instead spent time in hospitals in England being treated for various injuries, illness and, more than anything else, malnutrition.

When he finally made it back to Massachusetts there was some grumbling among his friends and relatives.

Expecting an emaciated POW to step off the gang plank they instead saw a slightly chubby Bob, someone much heavier than when he went to war and obviously very well fed. A professional dancer, he quickly lost the weight. Still, people needled him about it for the next forty years.

[Kaslin]

Frank Kravetz Biography

[PAR35]

Yes, much better done. He comes across a lot better there.

[trumandogz]

"And compared to the allies captured by the Japs, he had it fairly easy."

You are one tough dude, and I admire that.

I bet you could have done six months in Bataan standing on your head, with a smile on your face all while juggling live hand grenades.

[PAR35]

Take a remedial reading course and get back to me when you can understand my post.

[yldstrk]

my dad was in a Japanese concentration camp in China when he was a kid, 3 years, liberated by the US