Richard Frothingham was born in 1925 in New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. He spent his early childhood in Queens, New York, and by the time he entered fifth grade, he was living in Manhattan, New York. His father was a medical doctor and clinical professor, and did not lose his job, but the family income suffered during the Great Depression because people did not pay their medical bills. Frothingham had two half-siblings. He remembers the day the Germans invaded Poland at the start of World War 2 because on 1 September 1939 he was on a field trip to West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy in West Point, New York], and the instructors there seemed to have their minds on other things rather than on the tour group. Two years later, Frothingham was on a drive to his grandmother's home when he learned from a gas station attendant of the Japanese attack on Hawaii [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He knew it meant war. Frothingham had to register for the draft when he was a senior year in high school. He reported for service the week after he graduated, and was given a choice of Army or Navy. He doesn't know why he chose the Army, but he considered himself lucky in that he ended up in the field artillery rather than infantry. Frothingham did his 17 weeks' basic training at Camp Rucker [Annotator's Note: Dale County, Alabama], and felt he was "up to it." He continued his field artillery training at Fort Bragg [Annotator's Note: Fort Bragg, North Carolina] where he learned survey techniques. After basic training, Frothingham had a week's furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] before being assigned to the 656th Field Artillery [Annotator's Note: 656th Field Artillery Battalion].

In preparing for deployment overseas, Richard Frothingham remembers that the 656th Field Artillery [Annotator's Note: 656th Field Artillery Battalion] packed up all their equipment and anything that had metal parts had to be soaked in Cosmoline [Annotator's Note: an anti-corrosion oil coating]. Most of the people in his unit had been in the Coast Artillery, and were older and experienced. The 656th Field Artillery, a heavy artillery battalion, would use eight inch howitzers that fired 100 pound shells "eight or nine miles against the target." At Camp Rucker [Annotator's Note: in Dale County, Alabama], however, it trained on old World War 1 guns, and the new equipment was sent directly from the factory, without calibration, just before they went overseas. The Army planned for the calibration to take place in England, but because of a shipping error, the guns were sent to France. They had to be moved to England for calibration, so the unit stayed in England for a month or so longer than intended. It meant that the unit missed the worst of the winter fighting, including the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. The battalion was stationed in Congleton [Annotator's Note: Congleton, England], living in barracks buildings that had been silk mills, and did more training there. Frothingham went into London [Annotator's Note: London, England] once on a pas, and visited Manchester [Annotator's Note: Manchester, England] several times on leave. During the time Frothingham was in England, the country was under attack by buzz bombs [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug] that affected both Manchester and London, but he didn't hear any go off. Frothingham's most memorable experience in England happened while he was doing guard duty on Christmas Eve, 1944. Some boys came along, singing carols, and the GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] came out of the barracks and gave them candy. Frothingham said he felt that he was like the shepherds, "keeping watch." He wrote a piece about the event that was published in a newspaper, and the soloist from the boys' group read it. He told Frothingham that he was singing for his father, who had been killed in action a few months before.

The unit [Annotator's Note: 656th Field Artillery Battalion] went across the English Channel on an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] and Richard Frothingham stayed in France, in the vicinity of Rouen, until convoying across France. On their journey, they passed through the cities of Amiens and Lille [Annotator's Note: both in France] and stayed a couple of nights at a chateau in Belgium. They then stopped at a ruined and deserted village near the Hurtgen Forest where there had been heavy fighting. It was early March [Annotator's Note: March 1945], and they were making their way to the front in the Rhineland area of Germany. Frothingham remembered when they entered Belgium they were lost for hours because all the signposts had been taken down, and he suffered a mild case of frostbit after having been in the open truck all night. Eventually, they arrived at the area around Remagen [Annotator's Note: Remagen, Germany], and were firing their artillery in support of the American bridgehead there. By that time, Frothingham was with the wire communication crew, and used to the loud explosions of the big guns. On Palm Sunday of 1944, his unit crossed the Rhine [Annotator's Note: Rhine River], and the next day the Army had a "big breakout" and no longer needed the artillery unit, but it was "kept in the Army's rear," doing mop up duties, maintaining the bridgehead, and accepting surrendering Germans.

Richard Frothingham's unit [Annotator's Note: 656th Field Artillery Battalion] got word that they were being transferred to Patton's [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] Third Army for "the retaking of Czechoslovakia," and went on to Barnau, on one of the main roads between Germany to Czechoslovakia. There, they set up their guns and fired at German targets in the vicinity of Torgau [Annotator's Note: Torgau, Germany]. When the war ended, Frothingham said it was "a day of celebration … with a lot of beer-drinking" and listening to the radio programming about celebrations in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] and London [Annotator's Note: London, England]. One thing that stuck in Frothingham's memory was being told he didn't have to wear a steel helmet anymore. He said that wearing just the helmet liner "didn't feel right." The soldiers were also allowed to have lights at night without blackout shades, and it was strange to see the base lit up. He also remembered that the troops under Patton "detested the man." After the war ended, the demobilization was underway using the point system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home], and Frothingham was a "low point person," so he had to stay until May 1946. He returned on a Victory ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship], and had an uncomfortable ride because of an Atlantic [Annotator's Note: Atlantic Ocean] storm. He was separated from the service at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Because Richard Frothingham didn't get along with his stepmother, he had some problems returning to civilian life, but it had nothing to do with his military experience. He continued his friendship with only one of his fellow servicemen after he returned. Frothingham had a little college credit from classes he took in Biarritz, France after the war, and continued his education after his discharge with the help of the G.I. Bill. He went to college and seminary, and, ordained as a Presbyterian minister, served as an Army chaplain in the Korean War. Asked if he thought The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] served as a tribute to the war, he said he felt some of the activities were, rightfully so, aimed at people of the junior high school level. He thinks that the war is fading in people's memory. He said he "got a pretty good deal" because he got through it all right and got some educational benefits, but he knows that not everybody fared as well. He considers himself very fortunate.