School pays tribute to fallen soldier by retiring jersey

Former football player killed in Iraq

Tonganoxie ? On their first date as teenagers, Lucas Frantz and his future wife, Kelly, walked around Tonganoxie High School’s football track together until 3 a.m.

They’d met while stocking cat food at the local grocery store, B & J Country Mart. She made fun of his “high and tight” military-style haircut and began bugging him about when he would ask her out.

“I guess he’d always had a crush on me,” she said.

Within three years of their first date, they were married, living on a military base together and planning to have children whom he could raise to be good football players like him.

Kelly Frantz returned to Tonganoxie’s football stadium Friday night wearing her husband’s old football jersey. But this time she was without her husband, who died last week after being shot by a sniper while on a routine military patrol in Mosul, Iraq.

Lucas Frantz’s jersey was retired during an emotional pre-game ceremony that included Kelly Frantz and about 30 of her husband’s old Tonganoxie football teammates and friends.

“He went over there to fight for the people that he loved. He died for them. He died for us,” she said. “He was a wonderful man and soldier.”

Around town, flags flew at half-staff. A message on the local Sonic – where Lucas once worked as a cook and Kelly as a car-hop – thanked him for his service. At Shilling Electric Co. on the town’s main drag, Phyllis Shilling displayed American flag ribbons with black mourning ribbons.

“I think the whole town is very proud of this young soldier,” said Tonganoxie’s police chief, Kenny Carpenter. “I think they’re also very saddened that he lost his life.”

Lucas Frantz was a big man – an offensive lineman and linebacker at Tonganoxie High School – who wanted to become a Tonganoxie police officer when he finished his military service in 2007.

He joined the Army Reserve a week after he turned 17. In May 2003, he decided to go on active duty.

“I told him I would follow him wherever he went,” Kelly Frantz said, and the couple were married a few months later.

He was stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, as a specialist with the 172nd Stryker Brigade. He left for Iraq about two months ago and was scheduled to return after a one-year tour of duty.

Kelly Frantz said she last spoke with her husband about a week before his death, when they saw each other via Webcams using instant-messaging software.

“He looked sunburned because he’d been out getting ready for the elections,” she said.

On Tuesday – his 22nd birthday – he was killed in Mosul. Kelly Frantz said she’d been told he was standing guard on the vehicle watching over other crew members.

She got the news from her father, who came to get her while she was helping her mother work at a preschool at the family’s church.

She said she thinks her husband would want people to remember other soldiers who are still in Iraq.

“They need all the support they can get,” she said.

Anti-gay pastor Fred Phelps, of Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church, had 11 members of his congregation protest before the ceremony. They claim God is on the side of the terrorists in Iraq. They left after spending an hour outside the stadium.

Members of the Combat Veteran Motorcycles Assn. stood between the Phelps group and the stadium.

While town members expected the worst with the protests, the night ended up being about Frantz.

“He was a coach’s dream because of his dedication,” said Mark Elston, Tonganoxie’s head coach. “He’d want us to play and win tonight.”

Before the game, Mitchell McGinnis, one of Franz’s closest friends, fought back tears just to speak.

“I can’t believe it just happened to him. He was only 22,” McGinnis said.

Pam Jeannin, Kelly Frantz’s mother, said the ceremony was heart-warming.

“This town has really come together, and they have shown such love for Lucas,” she said.

In anticipation for Friday’s events, the ceremony and protests were the talk of the town during the afternoon in Tonganoxie, including at Shilling Electric Co. on Fourth Street, where a steady stream of visitors come in and out during the day to drink coffee and talk.

“I think people want to respect others’ rights to protest, but I think there’s a lot of the attitude that this isn’t the right time,” co-owner Phyllis Shilling said. “You don’t disrespect someone’s memorial.”

Death toll nears 2,000

The U.S. military announced Friday the deaths of four Marines and one soldier, bringing the number of American servicemen and women who’ve died in Iraq since the war began two and a half years ago to 1,993. With deaths coming at an average of more than two per day, it appears likely that the number of dead will reach 2,000 in a matter of days.

Shilling and her husband, Roger, said they were going to the game to watch their grandson play on the team and to show support for Frantz’s family.

“I’m not going for any other reason,” Roger Shilling said. “The protesters can do what they want to do, and I’m going to do what I want to do.”

During the afternoon, Police Chief Carpenter was arranging for security at the event and preparing to put both groups of protesters in designated areas.

“It’s a ‘keep-the-peace’ mission,” he said.

He said he encouraged the counter-protesters to stay home, arguing it would only draw more attention to Phelps. But the group insisted on coming.

“They want to be there to shield the soldier’s family from the signs and the comments they might make,” he said. “I can understand that viewpoint.”

Kelly Frantz said she was picking out a burial plot for her husband when she learned of Phelps’ protest.

“I think it’s horrible that they are coming,” she said. But she said she was glad the counter-protesters were coming.

“We’re telling everybody to ignore it. We’re there for Lucas and only Lucas,” she said. “If it’s going to happen, I know Lucas would be honored to have all the support” from the counter-protesters.