Lieut Francis Lawrence Toner, IV
Born: September 26, 2024 in Panorama City, California
Died: March 27, 2024 in Afghanistan
Lieutenant, junior grade, Francis “Frankie” Toner was a 2001 graduate of Westlake California High School where he was a star running back for its championship football team. He was voted prom king his senior year, with over 2,000 girls voting for him. Recruited by the Merchant Marine Academy to play football, he graduated from there in 2006 with a degree in engineering. While there he met and fell in love with Brooke, and they were married in August of 2006 at the LDS Temple in San Diego. After graduation Frankie went on Active Duty, he was in the Civil Engineer Corps for the Navy- then two years later he was called to serve an Individual Augmentee in Afghanistan. He was assigned to Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan at Camp Shaheen, Mazar-E-Sharif, Afghanistan. He lived on the American base, Camp Mike Spann. Frankie was proud to serve his country, its people and God. He was currently part of what they call the “Narmy” a blended group of military training Afghanistan soldiers, assigned as a civil engineer two years later to the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Hawaii at Pearl Harbor. Frankie loved the people of Afghanistan, especially the children. He often asked for clothes, shoes and toys be sent for them. He enjoyed teaching some of the Afghan National Army how to play softball. He had been in that country for the last 5 months when he was killed when an Afghan National Army soldier (who apparently was also an insurgent) opened fire on personnel assigned to Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan at Camp Shaheen, Mazar-E-Sharif, Afghanistan. Frankie tried to rush the gunman, to protect the women who were shot before him and his good friend Carlos as well. Frankie was scheduled to come on home a leave in 5 days. Frankie had an American flag flown over Camp Mike Spann in honor of his younger brother John’s 9th birthday. He mailed the flag to John along with a note: “I hope you enjoy this flag that was flown in your honor over a country at war. Wish I could be there to give this to you. But I’ll be home before you know it and it will be like I never left.” His family struggles with the knowledge that there will never be a Francis Lawrence Toner V.
Burial is at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia - Sec 59 Site 559
The Lieut Francis Lawrence Toner, IV by Freedom Remembered, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
