Lee "Nick" Banicki
Frank Velligas was my platoon sergeant at Fort Riley, KS and in Vietnam. I was a 19-year-old kid and pretty nervous while sailing across the Pacific on the USNS General Gordon en route to Vietnam in June 1965. Frank was very good at reading people and he saw right off I needed some uplifting. He took me aside and provided the assurances and encouragement I needed. We talked many times on board the Gordon and in Vietnam. He shared stories of his growing up in Hawaii and we discovered we both had a mutual connection - we both had prior service as Army firemen before we went into the Infantry. I also learned he fought in the Korean War and was a prisoner of war. Having a combat savvy vet as my platoon sergeant really eased my mind. I remember he noticed that I always carried an old 48-star American flag in my breast pocket and so he always referred to me as the kid with the flag. The last time I was wounded he visited me in the field hospital and asked if I still had the flag. I reached over and showed it to him and he smiled. He really cared about the troops under his command. I will always cherish his friendship and kindness. Rest assured he is a man I will never forget.