The State Bar Association of North Dakota Winter 2013 Gavel Magazine | Page 34

EMMONS COUNTY HERO

A SALUTE TO COMMANDER FRANK WIKENHEISER
Published by Emmons County Record, photos Al Wolf
during his naval career. While in the Navy, he at one point served under the late Admiral John S. McCain, Jr. and, later, John S. McCain III (the U.S. Senator from Arizona and the 2008 Republican Presidential candidate) served under Wick. Practicing law After retiring from the Navy in 1966 as a Commander and engaging in private business on the West Coast, Wick returned to North Dakota to enter law school at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, in 1973. “My intentions were to do this when I got out of the Navy,” Wikenheiser told a newspaper reporter who featured him. “I just got sidetracked.” At age 56, Wick was an intern at the North Dakota Legislature in Bismarck. Wick said then that he had “absolutely no political ambition. I’ve had all the politics I want in the service.” He is believed to have been the only UND law student with a daughter as a classmate. Cecelia “Ce’Ann” was a freshman law student when Wick was a senior. Law degree in hand, he went to work for the Wheeler Wolf Law Firm which opened an office in Linton. His childhood friend, Albert Wolf, was (and is) a partner in the firm.

Platoon members fold the U.S. Flag as Father Phil Brown offers a blessing.

Family and friends laid an American hero to rest at Arlington National Cemetery at Washington, D.C., on October 19, 2012. Full military honors were given for the Interment Service of Frank J. “Wick” Wikenheiser, Commander, United States Navy, Retired, of Nags Head, North Carolina. He died June 18. Wikenheiser, the son of the late Anton and Eva (Baumgartner) Wikenheiser, grew up in Strasburg. He and his wife, Happy, owned a home in Strasburg that they used during pheasant hunting season and other visits back home. As a boy, Wick dreamed of being a pilot, and his dream came true after he enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He received his Wings of Gold in October of 1944. He was a member of the Torpedo-18 Squadron on the USS Takanis Bay in the South Pacific near the end of the war. After the war ended, he decided to pursue a career in naval aviation. During the Korean Conflict, Wick first deployed aboard the USS Boxer as a pilot on the Night Attack Team. He deployed on the USS Princeton for a second night attack cruise. One of his basic tactics was to induce the North Koreans to turn on their radar units and burn up ammunition shooting at him. He bombed trains, tunnels and bridges—any transportation bottleneck—shortly before dawn. Day bombers would then come in and wrap up the stalled convoys. He served as an instructor in tactics in Hawaii

during the war, too. After Korea, Wikenheiser tested ordinance and was involved in early development work on the sidewinder air-to-air missiles. He also began flying jets. He was an ordnance test pilot in China Lake, California, among other tours of duty. Wick flew AD-Skyraiders, the most advanced night attack bombers at that time. Jets weren’t very efficient yet, Wick told friends. For several years, Wick served mostly aboard aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea. He served during the Lebanon and Suez crises and, as he said later, “other little wars we had in the ‘50s that nobody knows about.” He served as the officer in charge of the Joint Reconnaissance Center, Atlantic fleet, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, planning and supervising the execution of over 800 reconnaissance flights conducted over Cuba. He was based at the Atlantic Fleet Headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. He was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal for his performance. Wick was the skipper of VT-7 at NAAS Meridian, Mississippi, where he trained student naval aviators in jet transition, precision acrobatics and formation flying. His final tour of duty was as air operations officer on the staff of Commander Carrier Task Force 77 operating in Viet Nam waters, planning flight operations and briefing pilots. For his service Wick was awarded the Bronze Star. He made 750 carrier landings

“

My intentions were to do this when I got out of the Navy, I just got sidetracked.

”

CDR Frank J. Wikenheiser

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The Gavel February 2013