Like 16 million other men and women, many barely or not yet out of high school, Frank Stellar put his young life on hold during World War II and answered his country’s call by joining the military.
He returned to his hometown when the war ended, got a good-paying job he would hold for decades, married and raised a family, and was happy to quietly fade back into civilian life without fanfare.
Last Saturday, however, he was the center of attention when about 120 relatives and friends gathered at his grandson’s home to honor him not only for his service, but for his 100th birthday.
Born on Sept. 5, 1924, Stellar grew up on North 14th Street in Lebanon and was drafted into the Army Air Corps in April 1943. After basic training in Greensboro, North Carolina, he was assigned to the Sixth Army and spent the last two years of the war in England and France.
After basic training and a trip across the Atlantic, Frank found himself first in Glasgow, Scotland, then on a train to England. He had originally trained as a cook, but once in England discovered that more infantryman were needed, so he wound up attached to the Sixth Army’s 36th Division, known as “the Texas Army,” whose mission at that point in the war was to support the Allied air campaign.
England apparently provided him with one of his favorite Army memories. “We got a three-day pass to London,” he recalled with a grin. Asked if he had fun there, his smile grew and he simply said, “I’m not telling you anything.”
Frank’s unit got to France after D-Day, “and we had to wait for the infantry to go through and clear the area. Then we set up an airstrip in a farmer’s field so our fighter planes could be closer to the front.”
An Oct. 26, 1944, article in the Lebanon Daily News told local readers that Frank was “serving as a member of the Airdrome Squadron attached to the Sixth Army Group somewhere in France.” The short article described his unit as “a group of skilled technicians who have won recognition overseas for their aid to fighter plane groups by setting up technical and supply shops.”
PFC Frank Stellar was honorably discharged in February 1946. He returned home and worked at the Cornwall ore mines for 27 years, 26 underground. “I liked working underground,” he said. After the mines closed in 1972, he worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation until his retirement in 1986 at age 62.
On Feb. 21, 1948, Frank and Susan Jane Stewart were married in Ss. Cyril & Methodius Church. They raised three sons who gave them five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Frank and Sue remained happily married until Sue’s death on Feb. 15, 2019, seven days short of their 71st anniversary.
Age hasn’t prevented Frank from staying active. He’s belonged to the Lebanon YMCA for more than five decades, where, as its oldest member, he still works out three days a week.
On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, “I walk two miles, then get on the handlebars and do 80 swings, 20 at a time,” he said. “And then, I run 100 meters, then skip around the track.”
Frank was even training to run in the Penn Relays when an arm injury put him out of service. “I wanted to, but the doctor at the V.A. told me I couldn’t.”
Frank looks healthier and fitter than most 80-year-olds, and he credits the Y for some of that. “I really think the YMCA has a lot to do with that. I’ve been going there for 56 years.”
It’s not clear how many surviving World War II vets remain in Lebanon County. According to the U.S. World War II Museum, 16.4 million Americans served in the conflict and only 119,500 were still alive in 2023, slightly over 7,000 in Pennsylvania.
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