Frank Costanza

Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War, Frank Costanza served his country as a member of the United States Marine Corps. He was in basic training when President Kennedy was assassinated, and although he had not yet completed his training, they were told to prepare to deploy to Latin America in a few hours. The deployed never happened.

In addition to his tails of Vietnam, Frank tells the story (5:29) of a sit in that he and his fellow Marines took part in.  The year was 1964 and it was in a diner in Memphis, Tennessee.  A Marine he was with was denied service because he was black.  Well, that didn't sit well with Frank or the rest of the Marines on base.

Frank was a radar maintainer on F4 Phantoms in the VMFA 542 Fighter Squadron.



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