16 Facts About Frank Tompkins

Colonel Frank Tompkins was an officer in the United States Army.

Frank Tompkins was promoted to first lieutenant in the 2nd Cavalry on July 12,1898, and to captain in the newly created 11th Cavalry in February 1901, commanding Troop G in Batangas Province in the Philippines between March 1901 and March 1904.

Frank Tompkins accompanied the regiment to its new station at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.

In September 1910 Frank Tompkins became a professor of military science in tactics at Norwich University, Vermont.

Frank Tompkins was wounded twice during the campaign, in the knee during the Villa raid on Columbus and in the chest and shoulder from a rifle bullet at Parral.

Frank Tompkins returned to Norwich in September 1916 for his second tour as commandant while recuperating from his wounds.

In 1918 Frank Tompkins received the Distinguished Service Medal for valor at Columbus and in Mexico.

Frank Tompkins sailed with his regiment to France on July 6,1918, and on arrival found that the division had been designated by the American Expeditionary Force as one of six depot divisions to receive, train, and process replacement troops.

Frank Tompkins asked Pershing, now commanding the AEF, for transfer to a combat division and was assigned command of the 110th Infantry of the 28th Division on the Vesle River.

Frank Tompkins returned to the United States in December 1918, stationed at Fort Myer, Virginia, until March 1919, when he again became a professor and commandant of cadets at Norwich.

Frank Tompkins was retired on July 1,1920, with a service disability in a reorganization of the army but was immediately recalled to duty until 1923 to finish his tour at Norwich.

Frank Tompkins then retired again but remained affiliated with Norwich as a trustee until his death in 1954 at the age of eighty-six.

The elder Frank Tompkins later became Assistant Quartermaster General of the United States Army with the rank of colonel.

Frank Tompkins's grandfather, Colonel Daniel D Tompkins, was an 1820 graduate of the United States Military Academy, and a veteran of the Mexican War and the Civil War.

Frank Tompkins' second son, Francis Parker Frank Tompkins, was born in 1896 at Fort Leavenworth and graduated from West Point in 1918.

Major Frank Tompkins requested and received authority to pursue a superior force of bandits into Mexico.