Frank Jasicko was born in March 1924 in Tracy, Montana and grew up in nearby Great Falls. He enjoyed playing sports. His parents and three of his four sisters were born in Czechoslovakia, and he grew up speaking Czech as his first language. His father, a coal miner, died when Jasicko was 10 years old. He took on the role of caretaker from that moment on, and started working tirelessly to provide for his family. During the summer he cut grass, and during school he worked at a grocery store and bowling alley. He also had a paper route. As a young kid, he did not give any thought to the pending war. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Jasicko was worried about having to leave his mother behind unsupported while he joined the service. However, instead of waiting to be drafted, he volunteered for service with the Air Corps in 1942. He was inducted in Bute, Montana. He wanted to join the Air Corps because he wanted to fly. He was sent to basic training and aerial gunnery school in St. Petersburg, Florida. During his training, he had to go into quarantine because someone in his bunk contracted the chicken pox. Jasicko had to adjust to the military regimentation and discipline. After basic training, he was sent for mechanics training at Sheppard Field, Texas. Jasicko was assigned as a flight engineer on a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] with the 781st Bombardment Squadron, 465th Bombardment Group at McCook Field, Nebraska.

In early 1944, Frank Jasicko [Annotator’s Note: serving with the 781st Bombardment Squadron, 465th Bombardment Group] flew to North Africa for additional training in late 1943. Jasicko’s crew got along with one another. He enjoyed the scenery of the terrain of Africa. He was homesick and feared for his life ahead of his first combat mission. He worried about his mother and sister. He corresponded with them. After leaving North Africa, the 781st was based in Pantanella, Italy and began preparing to fly into combat. His first mission was a milk run [Annotator's Note: slang term used by American airmen to describe an easy combat mission] in Northern Italy. Some of his missions lasted up to 16 hours. When his plane returned to base, he looked at his plane and saw all the holes in the plane and could not believe he survived. He stayed in a compound with barbed wire around it when he was was caught by the Germans.

On 31 May 1944, Frank Jasicko [Annotator’s Note: serving with the 781st Bombardment Squadron, 465th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force] was shot down for the first time while flying over Yugoslavia during a mission to bomb the Ploesti [Annotator’s Note: Ploesti, Yugoslavia] oil fields. He recalled the uncertainty he felt about jumping from the plane, but knew it was his only choice if he wanted to survive. They landed in the mountains and saw kids in the field with animals. Jasicko and his crew stayed up in the mountains for about a week after being rescued by friendly Yugoslavian partisans. They were led to an airstrip where Jasicko and his crew were flown back to Italy. Upon their return, Jasicko and the others assumed they would be going home, however, they were ordered to continue flying missions. He was sent to the island of Capri [Annotator’s Note: Capri, Italy] for a while, but then had to get back to running missions. Jasicko says he kept going because he was taught to always follow orders and says he would have felt like a coward if he gave up on his crew. After being shot down once, he feared that he would be shot down again.

In July 1944, Frank Jasicko [Annotator’s Note: serving with the 781st Bombardment Squadron, 465th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force] and his crew were shot down for a second time and taken prisoner. He was scared because he did not know what was going to happen. One crew member could speak German. After being interrogated in a prison in Budapest, Hungary he and the other enlisted crew members were put on a boxcar and taken to Stalag Luft IV [Annotator’s Note: in Gross Tychow, Pomerania (now Tychowo, Poland)] which was a camp for the enlisted men. He describes both good and bad treatment by different guards at the prison. Because he could speak Czech, many of the Slavic guards were kind to him and often slipped him additional food and cigarettes. Some of the Germans could speak English well, and he got along with those guards too. There was one guard who they called Stoop, who was big and mean. He was harsh on the prisoners when they would not get up to march. The lack of food and boredom were the toughest parts of his captivity. Each cell received a bucket of food which the prisoners had to split evenly between each other. He received Red Cross parcels that were split between prisoners as well. He received one or two letters from his sister while he was in prison. [Annotator’s Note: There is a beeping noise and then a sound of a door opening at 0:56:04.000.]

In July 1944, Frank Jasicko was taken prisoner by the Germans after his plane was shot down in Hungary. He was sent to Stalag Luft IV [Annotator’s Note: in Gross Tychow, Pomerania (now Tychowo, Poland)] which was a camp for enlisted men. To pass the time, he walked around the compound with his friends, played card games, drew pictures, or created other artwork, and read books. Jasicko always heard other prisoners talk about escape plans, but he was never involved, and he never heard of any prisoner escaping. He heard that the war was going to be over soon, so he thought it would be best to wait. He heard updates of the war’s progression when new prisoners came in, or on radios that were hidden by other prisoners. He was unaware of anyone that was sick during his time in captivity. Jasicko said the lack of food and boredom were the toughest parts of his captivity. He was hungry all the time. In February 1945, the prisoners marched west to escape the approaching Red Army. Despite the deplorable conditions on the march, Jasicko kept his mind busy and focused on staying alive for his mother. When they slept at night, he slept under a blanket with a sleeping buddy. The prisoners received very little to eat during the march. In May, Jasicko was liberated by British troops. They boarded trucks and were sent to Camp Lucky Strike [Annotator's Note: one of the transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands; Lucky Strike was near Le Havre, France] to await transportation back to the United States. He received a physical exam and was taken care of while he waited.

Once back in the United States, Frank Jasicko received a 14-day furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to go home to visit family. It was heaven to see his mother and sisters again. He was then assigned as a clerk to an Army base near his home until he was discharged in late 1945 as a technical sergeant. He readjusted easily to civilian life, and he reunited with a buddy. He began working right away to support his mother. He used the G.I. BIll [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] to go to business college for two years.

Frank Jasicko’s most memorable experience of World War 2 was bailing out of an airplane for the first time and the fear of being killed. He fought because he was the right age to get drafted and decided to enlist so he could have a choice of which branch to serve in. After the war, Jasicko wanted to live a full life and believed he accomplished that goal. [Annotator’s Note: Someone knocks on door and comes in at 1:21:30.000.] He worked as a mechanic on airplanes and cars after the war. He thinks that Americans that did not live through World War 2 have no idea about it. Jasicko believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and that we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations because people should learn the history of the war.