Veterans Corner - Frank Watson

In an interview with Gazette intern reporter Reid Thompson, Frank Watson, 79 of St. John spoke about his life and his time in the service.

“Are you originally from the area?” Thompson asked, starting the interview, to which Watson responded that he and his wife were both born in Blue Springs, Missouri, “we went to high school together, she was my only girlfriend,” Watson said.

After high school, Watson left to play football at West Point in 1960. Watson’s wife would go to college in Kansas, and Watson would then go to New York for his last year of school. The couple got married on his graduation day in 1964. Watson would opt for the Air Force due to injury in football, and he got to jump out of airplanes.

“Back then if you got a scholarship to play ball and got hurt, you lost your scholarship. And the military academies are the only ones where if you get hurt, you can stay,” Watson explained. Watson’s dad was his advisor, strongly recommending that he go into the Air Force Academy.

Watson further explained that if you were going to be an army officer in 1964, you needed to be a West Point grad.

“You need to get the airport Airborne Ranger-qualified. They wouldn't let me do that, so I decided to go into the Air Force.” Watson fell in love with the service, going to flight school and later into navigator training in 1965

Watson’s first child was born in Waco, Texas, where he would go on to spend a period at Fairchild. Watson graduated right into the Vietnam War, losing his first classmate before the end of 1964 in a conflict called Santo Domingo.

Watson was a base commander at one point and explained his role.

“I was in charge of not only the bases, but it was also a community,” Watson said, stating that there were individual commanders of the units they had. “We had a bombing, we had a missile wing and we had a fighter group on our base.” Watson was in charge of running the base.

Watson started losing classmates, “After about three and a half years, I started to feel guilty, I lost two roommates who were killed. 10 percent of my class died. We had more killed in action in my class than in any other class. Since 1863.” They had gone straight into the war. “And again, with that many of my teammates, roommates, and two roommates. I don't know if you'd call it survivor's guilt.”

Watson was also the Director of Technical Operations, at one point and was in charge of refueling and ended up flying as an interpreter.

Watson speaks French and Spanish. He explained that Cambodians and Vietnamese officers all spoke French, though some officers did speak English.

“We worked in sports in camps, especially for Special Forces camps and that kind of thing. And it was no problem. Especially in Cambodia - you had somebody who spoke French.”

After returning from Vietnam, Watson explained that they weren’t welcomed back kindly, but it wasn’t until 20 years ago that he would get a thank you for his service. “I think it was the first time in over 50 years that somebody said ‘Thank you for your service,’ and it felt like they meant it,” he said.

Watson has a graduate degree in management, but he had wanted to teach school and coach football. “That's what I did. I came back to this part of the world because I loved it here and got a job in St. John,” he said. In the 90’s Watson would teach at St. John High School, teaching Creative Writing for 10 years, and coaching the football team.

In 2000, he had the opportunity to teach at a public school in Japan after coming back to St. John and retiring from teaching. Watson still networks with his fellow veterans and goes to reunions. “Most of my buddies went into the army,” he said.

He also was on the St. John City Council for 18 years. “I am still passionate about my church,” he said.

Watson currently lives in St. John with his wife and will be 80 years old this year.