Charles B. Frank was a farm boy from Mount Joy, PA. After high school he attended the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, graduating in 1938.

After induction and orientation in 1941, LT Frank traveled to the Philippines and was assigned as the Veterinary Officer to Battery A, 23rd Field Artillery, a Philippine Scout unit. Following the Fall of Bataan, he became a POW and transferred first to Camp O’Donnell and then to Cabanatuan.

In October 1942, LT Frank was one of 1000 prisoners transferred to Davao Penal Colony where he remained until June 1944. Upon return to Luzon he was designated for further transfer to a homeland camp and departed December 13, 1944 aboard the ill-fated Oryoku Maru. [Ed. note: The Oryoku Maru left Manila with 1,620 prisoners of war and 1,900 Japanese civilians and military personnel. As she neared the naval base at Olongapo in Subic Bay, US Navy planes from the USS Hornet attacked the unmarked ship. It sink on December 15. About 270 died aboard ship. Others drowned or were shot while escaping the ship as it sank. Reportedly, hundreds more died in the months that followed.]

Having survived the disastrous crossing, he arrived at Moji on January 30th and after a period of recovery was transferred to Jinsen Camp in Korea. He was liberated on September 7, 1945 and repatriated through Manila to Woodrow Wilson Hospital in Staunton, Virginia.

Now a Captain, Charles married Rebecca J. Gilbert, a former Army nurse in January 1947. They had three children: Charles G., Jon and Mary Ann. Col. Charles B. Frank stayed in the Army following the war. He retired in 1967 as Chief Veterinarian, 1st U.S. Army, Fort George G. Meade, MD. He was a lifetime member of AXPOW.

Col. Frank is memorialized by VFW Perpetual Post Chapter 219, named in his honor.

Both Charles B. Frank and Rebecca J. Frank are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.