George W. Fromknecht 1925 - 2001

FROMKNECHT

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 7/12/2013 at 00:11:35

Sioux City Journal

Navy Captain George W. Fromknecht, 75, of Annandale, Va., formerly of Sioux City, died of organ failure Thursday, Aug. 30, 2001, at Iowa Fairfax Hospital. A retired Navy captain, he commanded a landing ship tank, a destroyer and a destroyer squadron.

Graveside services will be 3 p.m. Oct. 2 in Arlington National Cemetery, with military rites.

Mr. Fromknecht served 29 years in the military beginning in 1943, when he entered the V-12 Officer Training Program at the University of Notre Dame. He was commissioned an ensign at the age of 19 1/2 and assigned to sea duty in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he served aboard destroyers as a gunnery officer and executive officer. He was also stationed in Athens, Greece, as chief of a technical training branch for a military, assistance advisory group.

His final assignment was as commander of a destroyer squadron out of Pearl Harbor during the Vietnam War.

He retired from the Navy in 1972 and settled in the Washington, D.C., area, where he worked as a logistics Consultant for defense contractors and volunteered with the Society of Logistical Engineers.

Mr. Fromknecht was born in Sioux City and was a Central High School graduate. He later graduated from George Washington University and attended the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

He was a member of Greek Orthodox Church of St. George in Bethesda, Md. He was a Mason and a member of the Shrine, the Scottish Rite and the U.S. Naval Institute.

His many decorations included several Navy Commendation Medals, the Bronze Star with Valor and the Meritorious Service Medal.

Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Georgia; his mother, Rubene Fromknecht of Sioux City; two children, Sandra Banks of Annandale and George "Jody" Fromknecht Jr. of Ruidoso, N.M.; a brother, Donald Roy Fromknecht Jr. of St. George, Utah: and five grandchildren.