US Navy 1st Class Corpsman Frank Frantz Turpin was born in Bennington, Oklahoma on December 10, 1916, the son of William Browder Turpin (1869-1960) and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Euzeba Moulton (1880-1919). His parents would marry in 1901, and this would be Lizzie's second marriage (1st John B. Ryals). His father supported his family in his early days as a house carpenter before trying farming in 1930. By 1940, he was working in shoe repair still in Bennington.
Frank was also the maternal grandson of Peter Green Moulton (1833-1916) who enlisted in 1861 as a private in Company "D" of the 9th Texas Infantry Regiment in the Confederate Army. Peter would fight in such battles as Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Atlanta Campaign, Nashville, Allatoona, Mobile, Spanish Fort, and Ft. Blakely. He would pass away in 1916 and his wife Lavinia V. Clements (1843–1917) would apply for her widow's benefits but pass away before she could collect on them.
As for his son Frank, he would graduate from Bennington High School in 1935. He then enrolled for a year in the Murray State Junior College, Tishomingo, Oklahoma, just 50 miles from home. He would become a farmer in 1940 but history in the very near future was about to change everything. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Frank would enlist in the US Navy as a hospital corpsman on January 25, 1942. By October 1943, he was enrolled in the Medical Field Service School Battalion at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. At this point of his training, it was a practice to send "students" to US Naval Hospitals throughout the country for on-the-job training. The purpose was for them to get first-hand experience before sending them to the battlefields in the Pacific. Given the date, he likely was sent to the US Naval Hospital in Pensacola. If so, it may have been where he met Pensacolian Winifred "Winnie" Maudell Mattingly (1924-1984). She was the daughter of Robert Whitfield Mattingly (1898-1955) and Fanny Ethel Gideons (1900-1980) and was a graduate of Pensacola High's Class of 1942. The young couple would marry in September 1943 before he had to return to Camp Lejeune.
In January 1944, he had completed his corpsman training and was now attached to the 43rd Replacement Battalion awaiting assignment. His final assignment was Company "E" of the 1st Medical Battalion with the 1st Marine Division. However, I spoke with a buddy of his on Peleliu, Edgar Mitchell stated that they were with Headquarters Co., 2nd Battalion, First Marine Regiment. In April 1944, he said his goodbyes to Winnie as he shipped out for the Pacific. He would join his division on Pavuvu Island just north of Guadalcanal as they prepared for their third operation at Peleliu. The voyage was 2,100 miles across the Pacific where naval warships began their pre-invasion bombardment of the island as of September 12. Five huge battleships, four heavy cruisers, and three light cruisers hammered the six square mile island with over 5,000 shells. Then they hit them with an aerial bombardment from three fleet carriers and five light carriers. As it turned out, the bombardment did very little damage and 11,000 Japanese were just waiting for the Marines to land. In all, out of 8,000 casualties 1,500 were killed.
In the words of Corpsman Edgar Mitchell's, "there had been so many Corpsmen killed or wounded that Frank Turpin and Rich Tuyn and myself were told to report to the front line to replace the casualties. As we were going down a road, the Japanese began firing a mortar pattern a few yards behind us. We ran and got into a large bomb crater. I realized that if the Japanese continued to drop mortar shells, one would fall into the crater. I told "Turpentine", that was what we called Frank (1st Class), that we should not stay in the crater. They felt that it was a good place to be, so I climbed out and started on up the road. I had gone about a hundred yards when three mortar shells exploded in the crater where they were, and they were both killed. There was not anything that I could do for them. About this time one of our tanks came by with a casualty which I treated, the tank driver asked where I had was going and I told him. He said "no need to go there, there isn't anyone left up there. I returned to the Aid Station and reported Turpin and Tuyn had been killed. Graves Registration would later pick them up. I am planning to revisit Peleliu this September 15 for the 66th Anniversary of our landing there. If time permits, I plan to see if I can find the place where they were killed. You may want to go on-line and search for the book, "The Old Breed" and buy it because its very accurate!" Sincerely, Edgar L. Mitchell. PS: "I went back to the site but the jungle had overgrown it to the point it was unrecognizable." (Edgar passed away in Florence, Alabama (1924-2017).
Back home Winnie was notified of Frank's death at their home at 2201 West Gonzalez Street. But tragedy was not through with Winnie as yet! On September 9, 1955, her father was fishing in a skiff when it turned over dumping him and two companions overboard. Robert disappeared below the surface and was recovered out in the bay at a later time. Winnie would remarry in 1945 to Roger William Stevens (1922-2018, a graduate of Pensacola High School himself in Winnie's same class of 1942.
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