COUDERSPORT, PA, USA
U.S. Army
SPC, CO C, 44TH ENG BN, 2D INFANTRY DIVISION, (1 MEF), FORT CARSON, CO
RAMADI, IRAQ 03/07/2005
Michael Franklin was a spiritual man, but that didn’t stop him from being tough. On the football field, he was a force to be reckoned with.
“He would go up against guys bigger than him and he would level them,” said Fletcher Brothers, the founder of a teen village in Lakemont, NY, where Franklin went to school.
Franklin, 22, of Coudersport, PA, was killed March 7 when a car bomb detonated near his checkpoint in Ramadi. He was based at Camp Howze, Korea.
Franklin joined the Army to follow in the footsteps of two uncles. He volunteered to go to Iraq and then took on dangerous missions to keep married men from having to go.
“One day he called and said, ‘Mom, I volunteered to go to Iraq,'” said his mother, Tina. “I probably could have stopped him, because he’s my son. But he’s a man, and he’s old enough to make his own decisions. He was so excited about it.”
In Iraq, Franklin prayed with his squad leader the night before the squad leader died. He was there for his fellow soldiers, said Brig. Gen. Michael J. Lally III.
“He knew how to liven their spirits,” Lally said.
March 08, 2010
My dear son,
I couldn’t write yesterday. It just hurt to bad. I miss you like it was yesterday, but 5 years have passed since I have seen your smile or heard your laughter. It is like when you went on your first camping trip and you got homesick. Well Mikey, I am Homesick everyday. We all move on but you will stay in my heart forever.
Mom, Coudersport, Pennsylvania