LEGION PLANS BANQUET, FUND-RAISER

SIKESTON -- District 14 of the American Legion will sponsor a banquet and fund-raiser Sunday at the Sikeston American Legion Post to honor Joe Frank of St. Louis.

Next September, Frank will be elected national commander of the American Legion, the largest veterans organization in the United States.

He was elected state commander in 1982 and has held a host of Legion offices at the state, local and national level.

Cost of the banquet is $15, with proceeds to go to fund Frank's travel through out the United States for the next 11 months.

A social hour will be held at 5:30; the banquet starts at 6:30.

Frank was left a paraplegic after he was injured by a land mine explosion in Vietnam in 1968.

He was one of seven Legionnaires selected to meet with President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and was an official ground breaker for the Vietnam War Memorial.

He was one of 10 Vietnam veterans selected to represent the American Legion during the entombment of the Unknown Soldier from Vietnam in Arlington National Cemetery and attended the presidential signing of the American Disabilities Act on the White House lawn in 1990.