Trooper Frank P. Battaglia
1 RLI 3 Cdo
KIA March 6 1978

Frank resided in Florida and New York City. He was a Vietnam veteran having served with the U.S. 173rd Airborne. One week after being casevaced wounded his platoon suffered a severe ambush. One week after tour of duty his other platoon suffered a severe ambush. Frank served a full contract with the Spanish Foreign Legion. He received a great honor there to carry the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a huge religious feast day parade.

Frank came to Rhodesia with his wife, and went to SAS training troop. His wife joined the Rhodesian Air Force and worked packing parachutes. Later Frank would always check the parachute packing number and had jumped with a chute packed by his wife a few times. Frank after SAS training joined 1 RLI 3 Cdo 14 Troop. He was and avid poker player and gave some young Rhodesian soldiers poker lessons while playing for matches. Frank was KIA (Killed in Action) on Op Turmoil in Zambia by a ZIPRA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe_People's_Revolutionary_Army } machine gun nest.