Arlin Dale Franken

Arlin Dale Franken attended Sioux Center Christian Grade School and graduated from Sioux Center High School in the class of 1966. He then attended refrigeration school in Omaha, NE and joined the Iowa National Guard with the 2nd Mechanized Battalion, 133rd Infantry. He was activated on May 13, 1968 and received training at Fort Lewis, WA. He was married to a Sioux Center woman on August 30, 1968. He died on July 17, 1969 from wounds he suffered when he stepped on a Viet Cong booby trap in Hau Nghia Province northwest of Saigon. PFC Franken had only been in Vietnam for nine weeks. A funeral was held at First Reformed Church and his body was buried at Memory Gardens, both in Sioux Center. He left behind a wife and was posthumously promoted to corporal.