Maj. Michael S.L. Franz, who served as an Army nurse in Mosul, Kirkuk and Fallujah during Operation Iraqi Freedom, died at home Friday after a two-year battle with synovial sarcoma, a rarecancer that affects mostly children and young adults. He was 36. As the oldest of three sons in a military family, Franz lived in Ohio, Landstuhl, Germany and Arizona, where he graduated from Buena High School in Sierra Vista. “I think he got interested in nursing when he was in high school, primarily because of all the different things that nurses can do,” his father Jeff Franz said. “You can always find something you would be interested in; he enjoyed that aspect.” After graduating from the University of Arizona nursing school in 2000, Franz decided to follow inhis father's footsteps and join the service. Already married — he'd gotten together with his future wife shortly after graduating from high school — Franz was stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington where he trained and worked as an operating room nurse. From there he went to LandstuhlRegional Medical Center in Germany. “He saw a lot of different things ... and ended up being attached to a forward surgical team,” his father said. The team of 20, assigned very close to the front lines, included doctors, nurses and technicians, who were able to set up a sterile environment in less than an hour. “They were with one of the bigger units that went all over, saw a lot of action,” Jeff Franz said. “People would be injured and brought to them, and, had that facility not been there, they wouldn't have lived.” It was work Franz found especially rewarding, his father said. Other assignments included being company commander in at the Bliss Health Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and as perioperative chief at Fort Riley, Kansas, a position he particularly enjoyed. Franz was thrilled when selected for the Army-Baylor Masters program at Fort Sam Houston, learning “the business aspect of health care.” Franz completed the program, all the while receiving treatment for his illness, graduating as the Honor Graduate in December 2013. He died while on active duty. “His big thing was always finding a way to help soldiers,” his father said. “For his whole career, he wanted to help them have a better situation.”

mheidbrink@express-news.net
18 Sept. 2014

Obituary

Obituary

The Faculty Alumni Award has been renamed the Michael S. L. Franz award.