"I was determined I wasn't going to end there." (Audio Interview, 24:18)

Franklin Nicholson

Franklin Nicholson in uniform [1944] War: World War II, 1939-1946 Branch: Army Unit: 96th Infantry Division Service Location: Pacific Theater; Okinawa Island (Ryukyu Islands) Rank: Major Place of Birth: Salem, IN

Serving on Okinawa, the last major battleground of World War II, Franklin Nicholson was wounded two days before the island was taken from the Japanese. Hit in the jaw by fragments of a mortar shell, he lost several teeth and fought not to choke on his own blood as he lay awaiting aid. The first army surgeon who treated him had worked on Nicholson during his training days for complications from dental surgery. And a chaplain whom he would later become close to in the States discovered a wound in his back that the medics had missed. Disfigured but determined, Nicholson forged a successful career and led a normal family life back home in Indiana.