By A tragic accident last week claimed the life of a senior USFK officer serving at Yongsan Garrison:
Friendly and self-sacrificing were how friends and co-workers described a soldier during a memorial service at Yongsan Garrison on Friday.
Lt. Col. David Frankenhauser, 8th U.S. Army Special Troops Battalion, was killed Monday when he was struck by a Seoul city bus while crossing the road near Yongsan Station.
Those close to him gathered at the Memorial Chapel to pay their respects.
“Today we are here to fulfill our part of the commitment we make as warriors,” said Special Troops Battalion commander Lt. Col. Kevin Colyer. “To honor Lt. Col. David Frankenhauser as a fallen comrade and to indelibly inscribe his mark on our heart and minds.”
Lt. Col. Maryann Otto, a close friend and co-worker described Frankenhauser as a devoted family man, a devout Christian and a generous friend.
“He was a servant to his colleagues and neighbors,” she said. “Some of our fondest thoughts of David are how friendly and outgoing he was. He always had kind words and a positive manner for each of us.
“He was the kind of person that would give the shirt off his back to someone in need.”
Frankenhauser, who served as the chief of transformation for 8th Army’s Future Operations Division, Operational Maneuver Directorate, Operational Command Post Korea, had served in the military more than 32 years in both the active and reserve components. He is survived by his wife, Marian, and four children. [Stars & Stripes]
The above image is from the late LTC Frankenhauser’s Facebook page. Here is a memorium to LTC Frankenhauser from the blog of a chaplain in Daegu that knew him well. Appartently he was only a few weeks from retirement when the accident happened. Incredibly he was also involved in a traffic accident last year in Korea that left him with injuries.
Another tragic traffic accident that has claimed the life of another USFK servicemember.
9:56 pm on January 18th, 2009 1
Terrible but not surprising. It’s been my experience that buses in Korea rarely stop for red lights. My condolences to his family and friends.
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6:45 am on January 19th, 2009 2
#1: I wasn’t able to find any details about the actual circumstances of this accident, so I didn’t know it was a case of a bus running a red light. Very tragic…….to say the least.
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6:57 am on January 19th, 2009 3
One account reported that he died whilst j-walking. He was in an auto accident earlier in 2008, as mentioned on the chaplain’s blog that GI Korea linked to. Although the chaplain figures Christ into LTC Frankenhauser’s survival of the earlier accident, others attribute his survival to the fact that he was coming off of a shift during Key Resolve and was still wearing his IBA while driving from the 19th ESC’s HQ on Camp Henry to his BOQ room on Camp Walker.
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8:37 am on January 19th, 2009 4
I would feel a lot better if Stars & Stripes would run the simple sentence, “Alcohol was not a factor in the accident.”
This would build faith in reporting and leadership.
Otherwise, the tongues will continue to wag.
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9:36 am on January 19th, 2009 5
Could someone find an mp/police report and post the info?
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3:37 pm on January 19th, 2009 6
So was it 80% his fault?
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9:26 pm on January 19th, 2009 7
It seems like we would be hearing more about this if it was a clear cut case of a bus driver running a red light (even though that is common here). Obviously, the driver would be at fault and an investigation would have to take place.
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7:37 am on January 20th, 2009 8
I think if the bus driver did run a red light you would not be hearing much about this either. When SPC Vang Her was killed by a taxi driver I had people email me saying the cab driver ran a red light but there was nothing in S&S to confirm that.
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7:41 am on January 20th, 2009 9
GI,
It seems SPC Vang Her was naked. Maybe the taxi driver ran a red light district.
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8:37 am on January 20th, 2009 10
Yes he was but that was something else that was never explained why which there has been plenty of rumors what happened with one of them being the cab driver stripped the clothes off him after hitting him.
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3:05 pm on January 20th, 2009 11
Why would the taxi driver strip his clothes off? With no witnesses, it would be best to just drive off. The soldier was most likely up to no good when he was killed, given the location, time, and his lack of clothing. If you feel that you must have martyrs for your cause, you can probably find someone less dirty. A female officer was raped in Daegu a few years ago, for example, and no information was ever released after the initial report in Stars and Stripes.
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6:34 pm on January 20th, 2009 12
The taxi driver did not report the accident for 30 minutes to police. What was he doing for those 30 minutes?
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=45697
Also alcohol was not involved in the incident and according to people who read the site he went hiking in the late afternoon with some friends who ditched him on the mountain and he got lost. He got hit by the taxi on his way back to base from the mountain.
Possible scenario is that he got hit by a taxi that ran a red light and the guy strips his clothes to make it look like the GI is up to no good. He can’t just drive away because the front of his taxi is smashed up which his cab company will surely notice.
Why would a GI that is not drunk, who was coming back from hiking trip, strip his clothes off and stand in the highway?
Also what cause am I supposedly finding martyrs for?
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8:36 pm on January 20th, 2009 13
GI,
Why was his nudity never explained? I would imagine even some CID hack with an advanced certificate in watching every episode of CSI could determine if the clothes were removed before or after getting smacked by a car.
Also, after reading your link, I found it interesting how USFK quickly pushed the anti-drinking agenda without confirmation of alcohol being involved. In Lt. Col. Frankenhauser’s case, however, there was no hint of alcohol being an issue despite a grown man getting hit by a big, bright bus in the middle of the street.
(If the reported jaywalking is true, it is even more interesting because it is usually MUCH safer to look both ways for oncoming traffic than crossing at a corner where right-turners and red light-runners complicate the crossing decision).
This is not to say it couldn’t have been a pure accident but considering the number of very drunk privates running amok in Seoul who manage to avoid moving vehicles on a nightly basis, the chance of a bus scoring an experienced and sober Lt. Col. is somewhat akin to winning the lottery.
As for the taxi driver, for 30 minutes, he was probably thinking, “What am I going to do? I’ll get fired and maybe go to jail even though I was minding my own business when a naked guy jumped in front of me.”
It is a good question, though. Why has Stars & Stripes not followed up on this?
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8:05 am on January 22nd, 2009 14
JAFO, you and everyone else knows why S&S hasn’t followed up on this story
As Everett said in Delta Farce: “I AM YOUR KING, BOW DOWN BEFORE ME”
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12:45 pm on January 23rd, 2009 15
David,
I don’t catch the reference.
I am still left curious why a search of Stars & Stripes has no followup of an event as major and unusual as this.
Did he commit suicide in this way?
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5:29 am on January 26th, 2009 16
etiquette
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6:40 pm on February 12th, 2009 17
my close friend has had the privalge to adopt a little korean boy and another one is on it way ! porr little kids
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