David Francke

Dear 50thCompany: 

Lou and I have some sad news to pass on. It hurts us to say it, but we just learned that classmate David Francke passed away on July 6 in his hometown of Sellersburg, Indiana. Classmate Randy Kimler, who attended Scout Dog School at Benning with David and remained close friends with him over the years, learned of his death from his daughter. Lou has sent a condolence message to the family on behalf of 50th Company. 

So far, I have been unable to find an online family-approved obituary, but many of us got to know David through his participation in our reunions and Shoot-the-Breeze Zooms. (The photo below was taken at the Gettysburg reunion.) At the Benning reunion, he led us to the Scout Dog Memorial and gave a talk about the program and the many lives the dogs (and their handlers) saved. David bonded with several classmates, including John Morrissey and Chuck Granner. In March, he and his wife Linda (of over fifty years) hosted a small 50thCompany get-together in their home in Cape Coral, Florida, and were planning another one next May. 

By way of background, David got tired of the OCS B-S and left the program.  He volunteered for the three-month Scout Dog School at Benning and shipped off to Vietnam in October 1969, assigned to the First Infantry Division. When Division S-1 found out he could type, they made him a clerk-typist and he enjoyed a cushy assignment in Division HQ. However, when the First Division was pulled out of Vietnam as part of the Vietnamization program, it forgot to take David back to the States with them. 

As he described the situation: “I got transferred to the 1st Cav with the 37th Scout Dog Platoon. I picked Brutus to be my best friend. (Or he picked me?) Brutus never let us get ambushed or sniped at. Along the way, we invaded Cambodia. I refused a Purple Heart because I couldn’t tell anyone how I got my wound. (Another guy’s dog bit me.) I am probably one of the few SPC-5s who got a CIB, Bronze Star, and Army Commendation Medal. I should have had also gotten an Air Medal, but since I was not making the Army a career, it did not matter.”

After Vietnam, David went to grad school at Ball State University in Indiana. That’s where he met Linda. They settled in Sellersburg, Indiana, near Louisville, Kentucky and only eight miles from where David was born. They had three girls and a son and were blessed with lots of Grand-Blessings. David worked as a certified general real estate appraiser and a real estate broker. Linda’s career was in teaching. In retirement, David owned and managed a self-storage complex. When he found out about 50th Company’s effort to reconnect, he embraced the opportunity to reunite with his classmates from a half-century before. 

May he Rest in Peace. Linda and his children (and grandchildren) will greatly miss him. So will we from 50th Company.                 David's Obituray

Regards from Brian and Lou. 

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