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During World War II, Frank Kane served with the same division now leading strikes on Baghdad.
By BILL DURYEA
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 28, 2003
HUDSON -- Sometimes when Frank L. Kane watches the soldiers battling through the Iraqi desert he'll glimpse a blue- and white-striped arm patch through the amber haze of the blowing sand.
The distinctive patch is the insignia of the 3rd Infantry Division, in which he served in Africa and Italy during World War II.
Formed in 1917, the division earned fame in World War I as the "Rock of the Marne." In the two world wars and Korea, the division produced 50 Medal of Honor winners.
"I see the blue and white and I feel pride, right off," Kane, 80, says, sitting in the kitchen of his home in Hudson.
But bundled with that emotion in a way that is difficult for him to articulate is a sense of dread for what the young soldiers in the 3rd Division are facing as they spearhead the assault on Baghdad.
"You're scared. You don't want to die. You haven't lived your life," he says, recalling how he felt in 1943 when he was shipped overseas as a medic. "You have fear for them. You know about the consequences of war -- the physical injuries, the mental injuries. This new war brings it back up to you."
But the television stays on.
"I've got to watch. I can't turn away. It's too close to me. It's the 3rd Division. They're involved and I'm involved," he says.
When Karne returned to civilian life after 260 days of combat, the last thing he wanted was to be involved with the Army.
He had spent four months on the beach at Anzio, battling for ground that was traded back and forth almost daily. On the day that Kane's regiment finally broke through, a shell burst near him, killing seven of the 12 men near him. Kane was not wounded, but he remembers nothing of the next 34 days.
"One day, the doctors found me digging graves in the cemetery behind the hospital," he says. "I don't remember that."
Kane spent nearly four months in a hospital in Naples, recuperating from what doctors now call post-traumatic stress disorder. He weighed 112 pounds when he arrived back in the U.S., down from 170 pounds.
He'd given away his souvenirs acquired from retreating Germans and gotten rid of his uniforms.
He took a job as an auditor with Eastern Airlines, courtesy of World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker's offer of a job for disabled veterans. He never talked about his war experiences.
Once, years after the war was over, Kane woke up to find his wife screaming and his hands wrapped around her throat. But still he wouldn't talk.
Ultimately, he joined an American Legion post in Long Island, and that freed up some of his memories.
But it wasn't until he retired to Florida that he made contact with the Society of the 3rd Infantry Division.
He joined John S. Cole Outpost 2, which draws its 190 members from all over Florida. It's one of 24 outposts in the country, which have a total membership of about 4,000.
"It was a relief to find someone to talk to who knew exactly what you went through," he said.
Before he attended his first meeting in 1987, Kane's knowledge of the division's history ended at its nickname.
He learned that in World War I, the division earned a reputation for valor when Maj. Gen. Joseph T. Dickman was asked by a French officer when the Americans would be retreating from the Marne River.
"Nous resterons la," he replied in French. "We'll stay there."
In World War II alone, the division's fighting strength of about 15,000 soldiers was replaced more than one and a half times over, having fought through Italy, France and Germany.
Kane became the treasurer and secretary of Outpost 2 about three years ago. His goal is to increase membership; he expects only about 35 or 40 members to show up for the annual meeting next month in Sarasota.
"But when this war is done, we'll have another 15,000," he says.
-- For more information about the Society of the 3rd Infantry Division, e-mail Frank Kane at ThanFranKane@aol.com.